Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WAR'RANT, n.

1. An act, instrument or obligation, by which one person authorizes another to do something which he has not otherwise a right to do; an act or instrument investing one with a right or authority, and thus securing him from loss or damage; a word of general application.
2. A precept authorizing an officer to seize an offender and bring him to justice. A general warrant to seize suspected persons, is illegal.
3. Authority; power that authorizes or justifies any act. Those who preach the Gospel have the warrant of Scripture. We have the warrant of natural right to do what the laws do not forbid; but civility and propriety may sometimes render things improper, which natural right warrants.
4. A commission that gives authority, or that justifies.
5. A voucher; that which attests or proves.
6. Right; legality. There's warrant in that theft / Which steals itself when there's no mercy left. – Shak. [Obs.]
7. A writing which authorizes a person to receive money or other thing. Warrant of attorney, that by which a man appoints another to act in his name, and warrants his transaction. Land warrant, is an instrument or writing issued by the proper officer, authorizing a person to locate or take up a tract of new or uncultivated land. – United States. Search warrant, a precept authorizing a person to enter houses, shops, &c., to search for a criminal, or for stolen or smuggled goods. Warrant officer, an officer holding a warrant from the navy board, such as the master, surgeon, purser, &c. of a ship.

WAR'RANT, v.t. [Gaelic, barantas, a warrant or pledge; baranta, a warrantee or surety; W. gwarantu, to warrant or guaranty; gwarant, warrant, attestation, authority, security; said to be from gwar, smooth, placid, secure; Norm. garranty, warranted, proved; garren, (guarren,) a warren; Fr. garantir, (guarantir,) to warrant; garenne, a warren; It. guarentire. This is from the root of guard, warren and wary. The primary sense of the root is to stop or hold, or to repel, and thus guard by resisting danger; as we say, to keep off. Hence the sense of security. The Welsh sense of smooth, placid, is derivative, either from security, or from repressing. See Guard and Garrison.]

1. To authorize; to give authority or power to do or forbear any thing, by which the person authorized is secured or, saved harmless from any loss or damage by the act. A commission warrants an officer to seize an enemy. We are not warranted to resist legitimate government, except in extreme cases.
2. To maintain; to support by authority or proof. Reason warrants it, and we may safely receive it as true. – Anon.
3. To justify. True fortitude is seen in great exploits, / That justice warrants, and that wisdom guides. – Addison.
4. To secure; to exempt; to privilege. I'll warrant him from drowning. – Shak. In a place / Less warranted than this, or less secure, / I can not be. – Milton.
5. To declare with assurance. My neck is as smooth as silk, I warrant ye. – L'Estrange.
6. In law, to secure to a grantee an estate granted; to assure.
7. To secure to a purchaser of goods the title to the same; or to indemnify him against loss.
8. To secure to a purchaser the good quality of the goods sold. [See Warranty.]
9. To assure that a thing is what it appears to be, which implies a covenant to make good any defect or loss incurred by it.

WAR'RANT-A-BLE, a.

Authorized by commission, precept or right; justifiable; defensible. The seizure of a thief is always warrantable by law and justice. Falsehood is never warrantable. His meals are coarse and short, his employment warrant. – South.

WAR'RANT-A-BLE-NESS, n.

The quality of being justifiable. – Sidney.

WAR'RANT-A-BLY, adv.

In a manner that may be justified; justifiably. – Wake.

WAR'RANT-ED, pp.

Authorized; justified; secured; as, wed by covenant or by implied obligation.

WAR-RANT-EE', n.

The person to whom land or other thing is warranted. – Ch. Justice Parsons.

WAR'RANT-ER, n.

1. One who gives authority or legally empowers.
2. One who assures, or covenants to assure; one who contracts to secure another in a right, or to make good any defeat of title or quality; as, the warranter of a horse.

WAR'RANT-ING, ppr.

1. Authorizing; empowering.
2. Assuring; securing to another a right, or covenanting to make good a defect of title in lands, or of quality in goods.

WAR'RANT-ISE, n.

Authority; security. [Not in use.] – Shak.

WAR'RANT-OR, n.

One who warrants.

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.

WAR'RANT-Y, v.t.

To warrant; to guaranty.

WAR-RAY, v.t. [Fr. guerroyer, from guerre.]

To make war upon. [Obs.] – Spenser.

WARRE, a. [Sax. wærra for wærsa.]

Worse. [Obs.] – Spenser.

WAR'REN, n. [from the root of wear, an inclosed place; Fr. garenne; D. waarande; Goth. waryan, Sax. warian, to defend. See Guard, Warrant, and Wary.]

1. A piece of ground appropriated to the breeding and preservation of rabbits.
2. In law, a franchise or place privileged by prescription or grant from the king, for keeping beasts and fowls. The warren is the next franchise in degree to the park; and a forest, which is the highest in dignity, comprehends a chase, a park and a free warren. – Cyc.
3. A place for keeping fish in a river. – Cyc.

WAR'REN-ER, n.

The keeper of a warren. – Johnson.

WAR'RI-AN-GLE, n.

A hawk. – Ainsworth.

WAR'RIOR, n. [from war; Fr. guerrier; It. guerriere; Sp. guerrero, guerreador.]

1. In a general sense, a soldier; a man engaged in military life.
2. Emphatically, a brave man; a good soldier.

WAR'RIOR-ESS, n.

A female warrior. – Spenser.

WART, n. [waurt; Sax. weart; D. wrat; G. warze; Sw. värta; L. verruca; Fr. verrue.]

1. A firm, arid, harsh, insensible extuberance of the common integuments; found chiefly on the hands. – Good.
2. In horses, warts are spongy excrescences on the hinder pasterns, which suppurate. – Cyc.
3. A protuberance on trees.

WART'ED, a.

In botany, having little knobs on the surface; verrucose; as, a warted capsule. – Martyn.

WART'LESS, a.

Having no wart.

WAR'TORCH, n.

The torch that kindles war.

WART'WORT, n.

A plant of the genus Euphorbia or spurge, which is studded with hard warty knobs; also, a plant of the genus Heliotropium, and another of the genus Lapsana. – Cyc. Lee.