AUTHORITY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... help to be found anywhere. It may be well doubted whether upon the whole the telegraph has not added more to the annoyances than to the comforts of life, and whether the gentlemen who spent all the public money without authority ought not to have been punished with special severity in that they had injured humanity, rather than pardoned because of the good they had produced. Who is benefited by telegrams? The newspapers are ...

— The Way We Live Now • Anthony Trollope

... town of importance at the extreme eastern point of the Crimea, containing immense magazines of corn, with which from thence the beleaguered garrison was supplied. Just as the expedition was sailing, however, Canrobert, who had supreme authority over the French naval forces, forbade Admiral Brueys from proceeding, and Sir Edmund magnanimously gave up the enterprise for a time at the earnest request of his colleague. A fortnight afterwards, however, General Pelissier succeeding Canrobert, authorised the French admiral to proceed ...

— How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves - Updated to 1900 • W.H.G. Kingston

... advantage for France that she was so long governed by a monarch almost absolute, supposed to hold his power by divine right, and surrounded therefore by a considerable prestige. Without such an authority he could have controlled neither the feudal nobility, nor the clergy, nor the parliaments. If Poland, towards the end of the sixteenth century, had also possessed an absolute and respected monarchy, she would not have descended the path of decadence which led to her disappearance ...

— The Psychology of Revolution • Gustave le Bon

... matters that did not belong to them, on the part of the ruled, was resisted by the rulers, and that with energy; inasmuch as such inquiries and investigations would naturally lead to results that might bring authority into discredit, make the governed presuming and prying in their dispositions, and cause much derangement and inconvenience to the regular and salutary action of government. My father took the negative of the proposition, while my uncle maintained ...

— Satanstoe • James Fenimore Cooper

... spoke with an authority that imposed on all, and Stephen submitted, while Ambrose spoke a few words of thanks, after which the two brothers were conducted by an external stair and gallery to a guest-chamber, in which ...

— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte Mary Yonge

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