Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LI'CENSE, n. [Fr. from L. licentia, from liceo, to be permitted, Fr. leighim, ligim, to allow or permit.]

1. Leave; permission; authority or liberty given to do or forbear any act. A license may be verbal or written; when written, the paper continuing the authority is called a license. A man is not permitted to retail spirituous liquors till he has obtained a license.
2. Excess of liberty; exorbitant freedom; freedom abused, or used in contempt of law, or decorum. License they mean, when they cry liberty. – Milton.