Hypertext Webster Gateway: "license"
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) 1.7 (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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