[ noun ] (law) a legal document issued by a court or judicial officer <noun.communication>
Write \Write\, v. t. [imp. {Wrote}; p. p. {Written}; Archaic imp. & p. p. {Writ}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Writing}.] [OE. writen, AS. wr[=i]tan; originally, to scratch, to score; akin to OS. wr[=i]tan to write, to tear, to wound, D. rijten to tear, to rend, G. reissen, OHG. r[=i]zan, Icel. r[=i]ta to write, Goth. writs a stroke, dash, letter. Cf. {Race} tribe, lineage.] 1. To set down, as legible characters; to form the conveyance of meaning; to inscribe on any material by a suitable instrument; as, to write the characters called letters; to write figures.
2. To set down for reading; to express in legible or intelligible characters; to inscribe; as, to write a deed; to write a bill of divorcement; hence, specifically, to set down in an epistle; to communicate by letter.
Last night she enjoined me to write some lines to one she loves. --Shak.
I chose to write the thing I durst not speak To her I loved. --Prior.
3. Hence, to compose or produce, as an author.
I purpose to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time within the memory of men still living. --Macaulay.
4. To impress durably; to imprint; to engrave; as, truth written on the heart.
5. To make known by writing; to record; to prove by one's own written testimony; -- often used reflexively.
He who writes himself by his own inscription is like an ill painter, who, by writing on a shapeless picture which he hath drawn, is fain to tell passengers what shape it is, which else no man could imagine. --Milton.
{To write to}, to communicate by a written document to.
{Written laws}, laws deriving their force from express legislative enactment, as contradistinguished from unwritten, or common, law. See the Note under {Law}, and {Common law}, under {Common}, a.
Writ \Writ\, obs. 3d pers. sing. pres. of {Write}, for writeth. --Chaucer.
Writ \Writ\, archaic imp. & p. p. of {Write}. --Dryden.
Writ \Writ\, n. [AS. writ, gewrit. See {Write}.] 1. That which is written; writing; scripture; -- applied especially to the Scriptures, or the books of the Old and New testaments; as, sacred writ. ``Though in Holy Writ not named.'' --Milton.
Then to his hands that writ he did betake, Which he disclosing read, thus as the paper spake. --Spenser.
Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ. --Knolles.
2. (Law) An instrument in writing, under seal, in an epistolary form, issued from the proper authority, commanding the performance or nonperformance of some act by the person to whom it is directed; as, a writ of entry, of error, of execution, of injunction, of mandamus, of return, of summons, and the like.
Note: Writs are usually witnessed, or tested, in the name of the chief justice or principal judge of the court out of which they are issued; and those directed to a sheriff, or other ministerial officer, require him to return them on a day specified. In former English law and practice, writs in civil cases were either original or judicial; the former were issued out of the Court of Chancery, under the great seal, for the summoning of a defendant to appear, and were granted before the suit began and in order to begin the same; the latter were issued out of the court where the original was returned, after the suit was begun and during the pendency of it. Tomlins. Brande. Encyc. Brit. The term writ is supposed by Mr. Reeves to have been derived from the fact of these formul[ae] having always been expressed in writing, being, in this respect, distinguished from the other proceedings in the ancient action, which were conducted orally.
{Writ of account}, {Writ of capias}, etc. See under {Account}, {Capias}, etc.
{Service of a writ}. See under {Service}.
"This is not martial law," said Labor Secretary Franklin Drilon. "There's no curfew, there's no suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.
So are all of them." Neighborhood attitudes are writ large in the graffiti of romance and racism.
Refusing to wait, the Drexel lawyers turned to a little-used tool, the writ of mandamus, to seek an order from the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan barring Judge Pollack from continuing in the case.
The writ he has issued says Sony is entitled to receive eight albums from him.
The KIO will appeal, for the second time. The KIO's efforts coincide with indications that a civil writ issued against many of the same defendants in London is also likely to become bogged down in arguments over jurisdiction.
According to a writ filed with the British Columbia Supreme Court, Mr. Perron is seeking an unspecified amount of damages from Toronto-based cigarette manufacturer RJR MacDonald Inc., a unit of RJR Nabisco Inc. of Atlanta.
Yet Mr Zyuganov can expect votes from that considerable part of the population who benefited from state communism, and that larger part who regret the passing of a great power which called itself Soviet but, as Mr Zyuganov says, was Russia writ large.
And now Senator Shelby can use the funds ploy to tell the executive branch not to enforce the writ of courts, in effect overriding both the other branches at once.
And these changes must be established by writ of law rather than through executive edict, in order to provide the imprimatur of stability.
Gossip is vital; literature, biography and history are gossip writ large; we therefore cannot live without them. Anyone's life is interesting, even that of a village Hampden in a sequestered vale.
Meanwhile, an interest in collage and graphic ephemera is picked up from Picasso only to lie dormant for a generation, to re-emerge, writ large, as post-war American Pop.
A total of 549 of these Names have already paid what they owe since receiving the letters but the news makes no difference to almost 200 Names who have already been issued with writs. Mr Richard Peacop, a Name with a writ, says: 'This is totally cynical.
Having won the commercial breakfast franchise from TV-am, Sunrise Television has decided to change its name 'to avoid confusion with BSkyB's breakfast programme'. To avoid a writ, more like.
It later filed a writ seeking an additional Pounds 150m from the firms for damages.
Former President Choi Kyu-ha, who briefly held office before Chun took power with military backing in 1980, also refused today to accept a writ to testify.
Miranda, who is the capital's Mariona jail, said in his writ: "I took responsibility in that death (of Anaya) because I felt very bad and worn out because of the treatment I was given by the National Police.
A writ was issued last week.
He has already issued a writ against Deloitte Haskins & Sells, now part of Coopers & Lybrand, for its work as auditor to Wallace Smith companies.
At Johns Hopkins the operation of Bennett's Law is writ large.
The result is '31 theatrical adventures', premiered at the Wurttemberg State Theatre in Stuttgart and already scheduled for a second staging at the 1995 Salzburg Festival. This is deconstruction writ large.
Moreover, under the Companies Act 1965, a writ had to be served on an overseas company at its registered address of any place of business established in Great Britain.
Under agreements dating back to Pakistan's birth as an independent state in 1947, the government's writ does not run in the tribal areas.
A judgment against the second defendant, the Republic of Iraq, was set aside on the ground of invalid service of the writ. HIS LORDSHIP said that Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2 1990.
One writ was lodged in the High Court yesterday and will be served during the next few days. The banks are Barclays, Lloyds, Midland, and the TSB, while the building society is Nationwide.
He said the woman chanted, "Acid is groovy, kill the pigs." James Blackburn, who prosecuted the 1979 case, said Sunday he has been hearing the writ would be filed for more than a year.
Mr. Chestman appealed to the Second Circuit and also filed a writ of mandamus, an extraordinary motion aimed at ordering a lower court judge to take certain action on the grounds that the judge clearly abused discretion.
It had no immediate plans to serve the writ, which contained no detailed accusations, or to take further action. Price Waterhouse is itself named in writs in connection with the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
Ms. Lefferts still could have filed a petition for a writ in Superior Court, but in the meantime, two police investigators hurried to reach Tucson Wednesday before the court clerk's office closed at midnight.
A Lazard spokesman said he hadn't seen the writ but that he stood behind the statement.