Writ Definition

rĭt
writs
noun
writs
A written order issued by a court, commanding the party to whom it is addressed to perform or cease performing a specified act.
American Heritage
Something written; writing; document.
Holy writ.
Webster's New World
A formal legal document ordering or prohibiting some action.
Webster's New World
The written order of a court in the name of the state or other legal authority ordering the person addressed to either do something or restrain from doing something.
Webster's New World Law

Authority, power to enforce compliance.

Wiktionary
verb
writs
Webster's New World

(dated, nonstandard) Past participle of write.

Wiktionary
idiom
someone's writ runs
  • someone has power or authority of a specified kind or scope
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Writ

Noun

Singular:
writ
Plural:
writs

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Writ

  • someone's writ runs

Origin of Writ

  • From Middle English writ, iwrit, ȝewrit, from Old English writ (“letter, book, treatise; scripture, writing; writ, charter, document, deed") and Ä¡ewrit (“writing, something written, written language; written character, bookstave; inscription; orthography; written statement, passage from a book; official or formal document, document; law, jurisprudence; regulation; list, catalog; letter; text of an agreement; writ, charter, deed; literary writing, book, treatise; books dealing with a subject under notice; a book of the Bible; scripture, canonical book, the Scriptures; stylus"), from Proto-Germanic *writÄ… (“fissure, writing"), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey-, *wrÄ«- (“to scratch, carve, ingrave"). Cognate with Scots writ (“writ, writing, handwriting"), Icelandic rit (“writing, writ, literary work, publication").

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English from Old English

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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