[syn: license, licence, certify]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
licence \licence\ (l[imac]"sens), licenced \licenced\, licencee
\licencee\
Same as license, licensed, licensee.
[WordNet 1.5]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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.
[1913 Webster]
To have a license and a leave at London to dwell.
--P. Plowman.
[1913 Webster]
2. The document granting such permission. --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
3. Excess of liberty; freedom abused, or used in contempt of
law or decorum; disregard of law or propriety.
[1913 Webster]
License they mean when they cry liberty. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Leave; liberty; permission.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
licence
n 1: 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 [syn: license, licence]
2: freedom to deviate deliberately from normally applicable
rules or practices (especially in behavior or speech) [syn:
license, licence]
3: a legal document giving official permission to do something
[syn: license, licence, permit]
v 1: authorize officially; "I am licensed to practice law in
this state" [syn: license, licence, certify] [ant:
decertify, derecognise, derecognize]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
23 Moby Thesaurus words for "licence":
authority, authorization, carte blanche, certificate, charter,
credentials, departure, deviation, dispensation, disregard,
divergence, entitlement, free choice, freedom, latitude, leave,
liberty, nonconformity, papers, permission, permit, privilege,
right