AUTHORITY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Authority

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/əθˈɔrəti/ Listen

noun

Authority n. (pl. authorities)

1.

Legal or rightful power; a right to command or to act; power exercised buy a person in virtue of his office or trust; dominion; jurisdiction; authorization; as, the authority of a prince over subjects, and of parents over children; the authority of a court. "Thus can the demigod, Authority, Make us pay down for our offense." "By what authority doest thou these things?"

2.

Government; the persons or the body exercising power or command; as, the local authorities of the States; the military authorities. (Chiefly in the plural.)

3.

The power derived from opinion, respect, or esteem; influence of character, office, or station, or mental or moral superiority, and the like; claim to be believed or obeyed; as, an historian of no authority; a magistrate of great authority.

4.

That which, or one who, is claimed or appealed to in support of opinions, actions, measures, etc. Hence:

(a)

Testimony; witness. "And on that high authority had believed."

(b)

A precedent; a decision of a court, an official declaration, or an opinion, saying, or statement worthy to be taken as a precedent.

(c)

A book containing such a statement or opinion, or the author of the book.

(d)

Justification; warrant. "Wilt thou be glass wherein it shall discern Authority for sin, warrant for blame."

See images of 'Authority'

Etymology of 'Authority'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Authority" Quotes from Famous Books

... coldly, as an onlooker. Perhaps my air of detachment gave me authority. The chiefs smoked the calumet and ratified my words. That part of ...

— Montlivet • Alice Prescott Smith

... in his own eyes, resenting the degradation on his daughter. Every time he thought of her, new rage arose in his heart. He had been proud of his family autocracy. So seldom had it been necessary to enforce his authority, that he never doubted his wishes had but to be known to be obeyed. Born tyrannical, the characterless submission of his wife had nourished the tyrannical in him. Now, all at once, a daughter, the ugly one, from whom no credit was to be looked for, dared to defy him for a clown figuring in ...

— What's Mine's Mine • George MacDonald

... from the West Indies and the Spanish Main,—state criminals, implicated in the numerous plots and conspiracies of the period,—felons, loaded with private guilt,—numbers of these took refuge in the provinces, where the authority of the English king was obstructed by a zealous spirit of independence, and where a boundless wilderness enabled them to defy pursuit. Thus the new population, temporary and permanent, was exceedingly unlike the old, ...

— Dr. Bullivant - (From: "The Doliver Romance and Other Pieces: Tales and Sketches") • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... his threatened descent into England. We observed a vast unfinished fort, which he had ordered to be constructed; it will probably never be completed, but crumble to pieces like the vast and ill-acquired authority of its founder. The town of Boulogne is large and well fortified, but the bustle in the port was chiefly occasioned by the embarkation ...

— A tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium • Richard Boyle Bernard

... by modern writers is probably based on the authority of Admiral Burney, and the eminent English geographer, Mr. Major, who, in referring to Burney's remarks with regard to this voyage in his paper on "Early Voyages to Terra Australis," printed in 1861, merely endorses this statement without attempting to discuss ...

— The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 • Ernest Favenc

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