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license |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: License \Li"cense\ (l[imac]"sens), n. [Written also {licence}.] [F. licence, L. licentia fr licere to be permitted, prob. orig., to be left free to one akin to linquere to leave See {Loan}, and cf {Illicit}, {Leisure}.] 1. Authority or liberty given to do or forbear any act especially, a formal permission from the proper authorities to perform certain acts or to carry on a certain business, which without such permission would be illegal; a grant of permission; as a license to preach, to practice medicine, to sell gunpowder or intoxicating liquors. To have a license and a leave at London to dwell. --P. Plowman. 2. The document granting such permission. --Addison. 3. Excess of liberty; freedom abused, or used in contempt of law or decorum; disregard of law or propriety. License they mean when they cry liberty. --Milton. 4. That deviation from strict fact form or rule in which an artist or writer indulges, assuming that it will be permitted for the sake of the advantage or effect gained; as poetic license; grammatical license, etc Syn: Leave liberty; permission. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: License \Li"cense\ (l[imac]"sens), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Licensed} (l[imac]"senst); p. pr & vb n. {Licensing}.] To permit or authorize by license; to give license to as to license a man to preach. --Milton. Shak. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: license n 1: a legal document giving official permission to do something [syn: {permit}] 2: freedom to deviate deliberately from normally applicable rules or practices (especially in behavior or speech) [syn: {licence}] 3: excessive freedom; lack of due restraint: "when liberty becomes license dictatorship is near"- Will Durant; "the intolerable license with which the newspapers break...the rules of decorum"- Edmund Burke 4: the act of giving a formal (usually written) authorization [syn: {permission}, {permit}] v : authorize officially [syn: {licence}, {certify}] [ant: {decertify}]
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