Search the Dictionary

A formal written warrant or authority, granting certain powers or privileges and authorizing or commanding the performance of certain duties. Let him see our commission. Shak.

rring, a commission; conferred by a commission or warrant. [R.] Delegate or commissionary authority. Bp. Hall.

ates of the secretary of the interior. Bartlett. Commissioner of deeds, an officer having authority to take affidavits, depositions, acknowledgment of deeds, etc., for use in the State by which he is appointed. [U. S.] -- County commissioners, certain administrative officers in some of the States, invested by local law…

the charge of the person or estate of another, as of a lunatic, is committed by suitable authority; a guardian.

us and exeditious ways. Woodward. Three things be required in the oration of a man having authority -- that it be compendious, sententious, and delectable. Sir T. Elyot.

Right or authority; legal power or capacity to take cognizance of a cause; as, the competence of a judge or court. Kent.

Obligatory; enjoined by authority; necessary; due to complusion. This contribution therestening fall infinitely short of their hopes, they soon made it compulsory. Burke.

Joint and equal in authority; taking cognizance of similar questions; operating on the same objects; as, the concurrent jurisdiction of courts.

A stated meeting of preachers and others, invested with authority to take cognizance of ecclesiastical matters.

n Scripture has a consequential necessity of being believed . . . because it is of divine authority. Locke. These kind of arguments . . . are highly consequential and concludent to my purpose. Sir M. Hale.

To cause to stand; to establish; to enact. Laws appointed and constituted by lawful authority. Jer. Taylor.

The theory, principles, or authority of constitutional government; attachment or adherene to a constitution or constitutional government. Carlyle.

presence of a court, tending to disturb its proceedings, or impair the respect due to its authority.

that place the subjects in such a state contravene the first principles of the compact of authority. Johnson.

Power or authority to check or restrain; restraining or regulating influence; superintendence; government; as, children should be under parental control. The House of Commons should exercise a control over all the departments of the executive administration. Macaulay. Board of control. See under Board.…

One who, or that which, controls or restraines; one who has power or authority to regulate or control; one who governs. The great controller of our fate Deigned to be man, and lived in low estate. Dryden.

Exhibiting contumacy; contemning authority; obstinate; perverse; stubborn; disobedient. There is another very, efficacious method for subding the most obstinate, contumacious sinner. Hammond.

Stubborn perverseness; pertinacious resistance to authority. The bishop commanded him . . . to be thrust into the stocks for his manifest and manifold contumacy. Strype.

ing of the same rank with another thing; one two or more persons or things of equal rank, authority, or importance. It has neither coördinate nor analogon; it is absolutely one. Coleridge.

The state of being coördinate; equality of rank or authority.