AUTHORITIES • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Authorities

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/əθˈɔrətiz/ Listen

noun

authorities n.

1.

The organization that is the governing authority of a political unit.

Synonyms: government, regime.

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 'Authorities'

Etymology of 'Authorities'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Authorities" Quotes from Famous Books

... therefore, in what spirit Seifriz has answered you, and what information Riedel has gathered in Prague. Prague, for certain (yet rather uncertain?) considerations, is indeed much to be recommended; only one would need, in some measure, to have the support of the musical authorities and notabilities of the place, as well as that of the civic corporation (because of municipal approbation and human patronage). In short, if the Tonkunstler-Versammlung were taken up and set in a good light ...

— Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 2: "From Rome to the End" • Franz Liszt; letters collected by La Mara and translated

... from the mortality of Cairo during the French occupation. This is given by R. Desgenettes, in the Description de l'Egypte, but only approximately, as many deaths, especially of females, must have been concealed from the authorities; I have, however, made an average from the totals, and applied the rate of mortality thus obtained to ancient Thebes. The same result follows from calculations based on more recent figures, obtained before ...

— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 6 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... combating British ignorance of Irish affairs and the effects of that ignorance in a manner which seems to me singularly effective. The writer is no mere rhetorician or dealer in generalities. On the contrary, he deals in particular facts and gives his authorities. Nothing is more striking than the care he has obviously taken to ascertain the details of the subjects with which he has concerned himself and the inexorable logic of his method. It is perfectly safe to ...

— Ireland and the Home Rule Movement • Michael F. J. McDonnell

... against her. At that time the Rue Breda was perhaps the most notorious street in the centre of Paris; at the height of its reputation as a warren of individual improprieties; most busily creating that prejudice against itself which, over thirty years later, forced the authorities to change its name in obedience to the wish of its tradesmen. When Sophia went out at about eleven o'clock in the morning with her reticule to buy, the street was littered with women who had gone out with reticules to buy. ...

— The Old Wives' Tale • Arnold Bennett

... that, had I been a naturalist, I might have called the horrible reptiles that abounded in these muddy streams by some other name than crocodile; but even now, after consulting various authorities, I am not quite satisfied as to the proper term. The English of the district always called them crocodiles, and to me they certainly seemed to differ from the alligator or cayman, whose acquaintance I afterwards made amongst the lagoons of the ...

— The Golden Magnet • George Manville Fenn

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