Writ vs Warrant - What's the difference?
writ | warrant |
(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)
(label) A protector or defender.
*:
*:And whanne I sawe her makynge suche dole / I asked her who slewe her lorde ΒΆ Syre she said the falsest knyght of the world now lyuyng/ and his name is sir Breuse saunce pyte / thenne for pyte I made the damoysel to lepe on her palfroy / and I promysed her to be her waraunt / and to helpe her to entyere her lord
Authorization or certification; sanction, as given by a superior.
Something that provides assurance or confirmation; a guarantee or proof: a warrant of authenticity; a warrant for success.
*Garry Wills:
*:He almost gives his failings as a warrant for his greatness.
An order that serves as authorization, especially: A voucher authorizing payment or receipt of money.
(label) A judicial writ authorizing an officer to make a search, seizure, or arrest or to execute a judgment.
:
A warrant officer.
#A certificate of appointment given to a warrant officer.
(label) An option, usually with a term at issue greater than a year, usually issued together with another security, to buy other securities of the issuer.
(label) A Warrant of Fitness; a document certifying that a motor vehicle meets certain standards of safety and mechanical soundness.
To protect, keep safe (from danger).
*, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.44:
*:all honest meanes for a man to warrant himselfe from evils are not onely tolerable, but commendable.
(label) To guarantee (something) to be (of a specified quality, value etc.).
*1851 , Herman Melville, Moby-Dick :
*:His pure tight skin was an excellent fit; and closely wrapped up in it, and embalmed with inner health and strength, like a revivified Egyptian, this Starbuck seemed prepared to endure for long ages to come, and to endure always, as now; for be it Polar snow or torrid sun, like a patent chronometer, his interior vitality was warranted to do well in all climates.
*
*:Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;.
(label) To guarantee as being true; (colloquially) to believe strongly.
:
To give (someone) a guarantee or assurance (of something); also, with double object, to guarantee (someone something).
*, II.ii.1.1:
*:Crato, in a consultation of his for a noble patient, tells him plainly, that if his highness will keep but a good diet, he will warrant him his former health.
(label) To authorize; to give (someone) warrant or sanction (to do something).
:
(label) To justify; to give grounds for.
:
In obsolete terms the difference between writ and warrant
is that writ is that which is written; writing while warrant is a protector or defender.As nouns the difference between writ and warrant
is that writ is a written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something while warrant is a protector or defender.As verbs the difference between writ and warrant
is that writ is past participle of lang=en while warrant is to protect, keep safe (from danger).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
