Writ vs Commandment - What's the difference?
writ | commandment | Related terms |
(legal) A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
authority, power to enforce compliance
* '>citation
(obsolete) that which is written; writing
* Spenser
* Knolles
(dated, nonstandard)
* (Omar Khayyam) (in translation)
Something that must be obeyed; a command or edict.
* Bible, John xiii. 34
The act of commanding; exercise of authority.
* Shakespeare
(legal) The offence of commanding or inducing another to violate the law.
Writ is a related term of commandment.
As nouns the difference between writ and commandment
is that writ is (legal) a written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something while commandment is one of the ten commandments.As a verb writ
is (dated|nonstandard).writ
English
(wikipedia writ)Noun
(en noun)- 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.
- Then to his hands that writ he did betake, / Which he disclosing read, thus as the paper spake.
- Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ
Derived terms
* drop the writ * Holy Writ * writ of habeas corpusReferences
* Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (Webster)Verb
(head)- (Dryden)
- The moving finger writes, and having writ , not all your piety or wit can lure it back to cancel half a line
Usage notes
* The form writ'' survives in standard dialects only in the phrase ''writ large , though it remains common in some dialects (e.g. Scouse).commandment
English
Alternative forms
* commaundment (obsolete)Noun
(en noun)- A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.
- And therefore put I on the countenance / Of stern commandment .