authorize
verbUS /ˈɔθəɹaɪz/ · UK /ˈɔːθəɹaɪz/
Etymology From Middle English auctorisen, from Old French auctorisier, from Medieval Latin auctōrizāre, from Latin auctor. See author about the orthography with ⟨h⟩. Doublet of octroy.
1
British, English, Oxford, US, Ambitransitive To grant (someone) the permission or power necessary to do (something); to permit; to sanction or consent to.
- The General Assembly authorized the Council to take up the matter.
- The judge authorized the wiretapping.
4 more examples
- The term “Alfredian” then is not univocal; it can mean, depending on the argument, anything from Alfred setting down words by himself, to Alfred working with a little or a lot of help in writing or dictating, or to Alfred authorizing another or others to act in his name with degrees of his personal involvement varying from much to nil.1986, Paul E. Szarmach, “Introduction”, in Studies in Earlier Old English Prose, State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 2:
- Meese arrived back at the Justice Department at 12:45 p.m. and advised Reynolds, Cooper, and Richardson that the President had authorized him to "get his arms around the Iranian initiative."1995, Lee H. Hamilton, Daniel K. Inouye, Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran/Contra Affair, →ISBN, page 305:
- When authorizing in IE5 against an LDAP server, if the password is incorrect, IE will not issue the challenge again, it will go right to the error document.1999 November 12, Peredina, “mod_ldap and IE5”, in comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix (Usenet), archived from the original on 04 Jul 2026:
- The soundingness of hearing and voicing constitute an embodied sense of presence and of memory. Voice then authorizes identities as identities authorize voice.2007, Patricia Kruth, Henry Stobart, Sound, page 184:
- Derived terms
- authorizable, authorization, authorisation, authorizer, disauthorize, exauthorize, misauthorize, preauthorize, reauthorize, unauthorize, unauthorized, unauthorised