Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WAR'RANT-Y, n.

1. In law, a promise or covenant by deed, made by the bargainer for himself and his heirs, to warrant or secure the bargainee and his heirs against all men in the enjoyment of an estate or other thing granted. Such warranty passes from the seller to the buyer, from the feoffor to the feoffee, and from the releaser to the release. Warranty is real, when annexed to lands and tenements granted in fee or for life, &c., and is in deed or in law; and personal, when it respects goods sold or their quality. In common recoveries, a fictitious person is called to warranty. In the sale of goods or personal property, the seller warrants the title for warranty is express or implied. If a man sells goods which are not his own, or which he has no right to sell, the purchaser may have satisfaction for the injury. And if the seller expressly warrants the goods to be sound and not defective, and they prove to be otherwise, he must indemnify the purchaser; for the law implies a contract in the warranty, to make good any defect. But the warranty must be at the time of sale, and not afterward. – Blackstone.
2. Authority; justificatory mandate or precept. If they disobey any precept, that is no excuse to us, nor gives us any warranty to disobey likewise. – Kettlewell. [In this sense, warrant is now used.]
3. Security. The stamp was a warranty of the public. – Locke.