Definition of "writ"

writ

/ɹɪt/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural writs
1. (law) A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
2. Authority, power to enforce compliance.
  Quotations
  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, 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
3. (archaic) That which is written; writing.
  Quotations
  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, stanza 25
  Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ
  1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip
4. A written order, issued by the British House of Commons, ordering a parliamentary by-election, or an order, issued by the Lord Chancellor, ordering a general election, or one issued by the House of Lords summoning Peers to the Chamber.
verb
1. (archaic) past of write
  Quotations
  I know the hand, in faith tis a faire hand,And whiter then the paper it writ on,Is the faire hand that writ.
  c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, [Act II, scene iv]
2. (archaic) past participle of write
  Quotations
  I know the hand, in faith tis a faire hand,And whiter then the paper it writ on,Is the faire hand that writ.
  c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, [Act II, scene iv]
  Let Virtuoſo’s in five years be Writ; / Yet not one Thought accuſe thy toil of Wit.
  c. 1678 (date written; published 1682), J[ohn] Dryden, “Mac Flecknoe”, in Mac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […], published 1709, page 7
  For as this is the Liquor of modern Hiſtorians, nay, perhaps their Muſe, if we may believe the Opinion of Butler, who attributes Inſpiration to Ale, it ought likewiſe to be the Potation of their Readers; ſince every Book ought to be read with the ſame Spirit, and in the ſame Manner, as it is writ.
  1749, Henry Fielding, “Containing five Pages of Paper”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], book IV, page 2
  The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, / Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit / Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, […]
  1859, Omar Khayyam, “Quatrain LI”, in [Edward FitzGerald], transl., Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia. […], facsimile edition, London: Bernard Quaritch, […], page 11
  But the film is a saddening bore'Cause I wrote it ten times or moreIt's about to be writ again
  1971, “Life on Mars?”, performed by David Bowie

Definition of "writ"

writ

noun

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

Quotations