writ
noun/ɹɪt/
Etymology 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”).
1
Law A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
2
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK A document ordering that an election be conducted.
3
UK An order issued by the House of Lords summoning peers to the Chamber.
4
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.2009, Stephen Gale et al., The War on Terrorism: 21st-Century Perspectives, Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 30:
- Within Lololand, of course, no Chinese writ runs, no Chinese magistrate holds sway, and the people, more or less divided among themselves, are under the government of their tribal chiefs.1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China:
5
Archaic That which is written; writing.
- Then to his hands that writ he did betake, / Which he disclosing, red thus, as the paper spake.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25:
- Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:
- Synonyms
- claim form
- Derived terms
- barony by writ, drop the writ, handwrit, Holy Writ, prerogative writ, proverbs should be writ in pairs, writ of assistance, writ of attachment, writ of execution, writ of habeas corpus, writ of inquiry, writ of mandamus, writ of privilege, writ of prohibition, writ of right, writ of summons, writ-room