Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MAN-DA'MUS, n. [L. mando, to command; mandamus, we command. The primary sense is to send.]

In law, a command or writ, issuing from the king's bench in England, and in America, from some of the higher courts, directed to any person, corporation, or inferior court, requiring them to do some act therein specified, which appertains to their office and duty; as to admit or restore a person to an office or franchise, or to an academical degree, or to deliver papers, annex a seal to a paper, &c. Blackstone.