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e profits have paid the demand for which it is taken, or till the owner has performed the decree of court, or clears himself of contempt; in international law, to confiscate. Formerly the goods of a defendant in chancery were, in the last resort, sequestered and detained to enforce the decrees of the court. And now the…

e; to rate; -- with at. Be you contented, wearing now the garland, To have a son set your decrees at naught. Shak. I do not set my life at a pin's fee. Shak.

roblem. True piety would effectually solve such scruples. South. God shall solve the dark decrees of fate. Tickell.

rivial name. -- Specific performance (Law), the peformance of a contract or agreement as decreed by a court of equity.

olute; harsh; as, a sternresolve; a stern necessity; a stern heart; a stern gaze; a stern decree. The sterne wind so loud gan to rout. Chaucer. I would outstare the sternest eyes that look. Shak. When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Shak. Stern as tutors, and as uncl…

press; to restrain; to suppress; to interrupt; to suspend; as, to stop the execution of a decree, the progress of vice, the approaches of old age or infirmity. Whose disposition all the world well knows Will not be rubbed nor stopped. Shak.

Strict; scrupulous; rigorous. Some certain edicts and some strait decrees. Shak. The straitest sect of our religion. Acts xxvi. 5 (Rev. Ver.).

One of that class of Calvinists who believed that God's decree of election determined that man should fall, in order that the opportunity might be furnished of securing the redemption of a part of the race, the decree of salvation being conceived of as formed before or beyond, and not after or following, the lapse, or…

mbly or council having civil authority; a legislative body. It hath in solemn synods been decreed, Both by the Syracusians and ourselves, To admit no traffic to our adverse towns. Shak. Parent of gods and men, propitious Jove! And you, bright synod of the powers above. Dryden.

An adherent to a synod. These synodists thought fit in Latin as yet to veil their decrees from vulgar eyes. Fuller.

Retaliation. [Obs.] Just heav'n this taliation did decree. Beaumont.

e. Only in the throne will I be greater than thou. Gen. xli. 40. To mold a mighty state's decrees, And shape the whisper of the throne. Tennyson.

To influence by impulse; to impel forcibly. " No decree of mine, . . . [to] touch with lightest moment of impulse his free will," Milton.

ion; absolute; unreserved; as, an unconditional surrender. O, pass not, Lord, an absolute decree, Or bind thy sentence unconditional. Dryden. -- Un`con*di"tion*al*ly, adv.

Contrary to law and equity; unjust; as, an unrighteous decree or sentence. -- Un*right"eous*ly, adv. -- Un*right"eous*ness, n.

agent. God did not work as a necessary, but a voluntary, agent, intending beforehand, and decreeing with himself, that which did outwardly proceed from him. Hooker.

The choice or determination of one who has authority; a decree; a command; discretionary pleasure. Thy will be done. Matt. vi. 10. Our prayers should be according to the will of God. Law.