Emily Dickinson Lexicon

COM-MAND'MENT, n.

1. A command; a mandate; an order or injunction given by authority; charge; precept. Why do ye transgress the commandment of God. – Matth. xv. This is the first and great commandment. – Matth. xxii. A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another. – John xiii.
2. By way of eminence, a precept of the decalogue, or moral law, written on tables of stone, at Mount Sinai; one of the ten commandments. – Ex. xxxiv.
3. Authority; coercive power. – Shak.