Warrant Definition
wôrənt, wŏr-
warranted, warrants
noun
warrants
An order that serves as authorization, especially:
American Heritage
Justification or reasonable grounds for some act, course, statement, or belief.
Webster's New World
Authorization or sanction, as by a superior or the law.
Webster's New World
Something that serves as an assurance, or guarantee, of some event or result.
Webster's New World
A writing serving as authorization or certification for something.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
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verb
warranted, warrants
To give (someone) authorization or sanction to do something.
Webster's New World
To serve as justification or reasonable grounds for (an act, belief, etc.)
A remark that did not warrant such anger.
Webster's New World
To guarantee (a product).
American Heritage
To authorize (the doing of something)
Webster's New World
To guarantee (a purchaser) indemnification against damage or loss.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
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other
A security issued by a company that gives the owner the right to purchase stock shares at a set price within a specific time frame. In contrast, a perpetual warrant has no expiration date. Sometimes warrants are given to purchasers of debt or preferred stock as an incentive to buy.
Webster's New World Finance
A warrant issued by a governor or other person with authority, commanding that a prisoner under sentence of death be put to death at a certain time and in a certain manner.
Webster's New World Law
A warrant used by the government to search a described premises and seize any proscribed substances not described in the warrant. This type of warrant has been held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court as violating the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, except in cases where the seized items are in plain sight.
Webster's New World Law
An arrest warrant issued specifically by a judge for a person who has failed to appear before a court after previously having been summoned to do so, or who has been indicted for an offense or found to be in contempt of court.
Webster's New World Law
Origin of Warrant
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From Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French warant, warand (= Old French guarant > modern garant), present participle of a Romance verb from Frankish *warjan.
From Wiktionary
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From Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French warantir, warandir (= Old French guarantir > modern garantir), a Romance formation from the noun, Etymology 1, above.
From Wiktionary
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Middle English warant from Old North French of Germanic origin wer-4 in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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