writ

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Authority, power to enforce compliance.

   We can't let them take advantage of the fact that there are so many areas of the world where no one's writ runs.

2. 2
   noun

   That which is written; writing.

   Then to his hands that writ he did betake, / Which he disclosing, red thus, as the paper spake.

3. 3
   noun

   (law) a legal document issued by a court or judicial officer

4. 4
   noun

   A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.

From Middle English writ, from Old English writ and ġewrit (“writing”), from Proto-Germanic *writą (“fissure, writing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey-, *wrī- (“to scratch, carve, ingrave”). Cognate with Scots writ (“writ, writing, handwriting”), Icelandic rit (“writing, writ, literary work, publication”).

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