Search the Dictionary

The privilege granted to lords of certain manors to judge thieves taken within the seigniory of such lords. Cowell.

An encroachment on a patent, copyright, or other special privilege; a trespass.

The state of having legal right to claim the privileges of a recognized inhabitant; especially, the right to support in case of poverty, acquired by residence in a town; habitancy.

The mutual right to civic privileges, in the different States. Bancroft.

The right or privilege of intercommoning.

To lay under an interdict; to cut off from the enjoyment of religious privileges, as a city, a church, an individual. An archbishop may not only excommunicate and interdict his suffragans, but his vicar general may do the same. Ayliffe.

Equal law or right; equal distribution of rights and privileges; similarity.

A soldier of a privileged military class, which formed the nucleus of the Turkish infantry, but was suppressed in 1826. [written also janissary.]

ristian churches to administer the discipline of the church, and to grant or withhold its privileges; -- so called from the declaration of Christ, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Matt. xvi. 19.

The termination of a right or privilege through neglect to exercise it within the limited time, or through failure of some contingency; hence, the devolution of a right or privilege.

Having slipped downward, backward, or away; having lost position, privilege, etc., by neglect; -- restricted to figurative uses. Once more I will renew His lapsed powers, though forfeit. Milton.

The laity; the common people. [Obs.] The learned have no more privilege than the lay. B. Jonson.

To give, grant, or assign, as a work, privilege, or contract; -- often with out; as, to let the building of a bridge; to let out the lathing and the plastering.

uratively, to bring to a common level or plane, in respect of rank, condition, character, privilege, etc.; as, to level all the ranks and conditions of men.

A privilege conferred by a superior power; permission granted; leave; as, liberty given to a child to play, or to a witness to leave a court, and the like.

seems to have been a lord of a free band; and his lieges, though serving under him, were privileged men, free from all other obligations, their name being due to their freedom, not to their service. Skeat.

etc.; also, the whole body or company of persons wearing such a garb, and entitled to the privileges of the association; as, the whole livery of London. A Haberdasher and a Carpenter, A Webbe, a Dyer, and a Tapicer, And they were clothed all in one livery Of a solempne and a gret fraternite. Chaucer. From the periodica…

shing dress or livery of the company to which he belongs, and also to enjoy certain other privileges, as the right of voting in an election for the lord mayor, sheriffs, chamberlain, etc.

To invest with the dignity, power, and privileges of a lord. [R.] Shak.

Hence, a fundamental constitution which guaranties rights and privileges.