Library / English Dictionary

DECREE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge)

Example:

a friend in New Mexico said that the order caused no trouble out there

Synonyms:

decree; edict; fiat; order; rescript

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("decree" is a kind of...):

act; enactment (a legal document codifying the result of deliberations of a committee or society or legislative body)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "decree"):

consent decree (an agreement between two parties that is sanctioned by the court; for example, a company might agree to stop certain questionable practices without admitting guilt)

curfew (an order that after a specific time certain activities (as being outside on the streets) are prohibited)

decree nisi (a decree issued on a first petition for divorce; becomes absolute at some later date)

imperial decree (a decree issued by a sovereign ruler)

judicial separation; legal separation (a judicial decree regulating the rights and responsibilities of a married couple living apart)

programma (an edict that has been publicly posted)

ban; prohibition; proscription (a decree that prohibits something)

stay (a judicial order forbidding some action until an event occurs or the order is lifted)

bull; papal bull (a formal proclamation issued by the pope (usually written in antiquated characters and sealed with a leaden bulla))

Derivation:

decree (decide with authority)

decree (issue a decree)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Decide with authority

Example:

The King decreed that all firstborn males should be killed

Synonyms:

decree; rule

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "decree" is one way to...):

decide; determine; make up one's mind (reach, make, or come to a decision about something)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "decree"):

override; overrule; overthrow; overturn; reverse (rule against)

rule in; rule out (include or exclude by determining judicially or in agreement with rules)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

decree (a legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Issue a decree

Example:

The King only can decree

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "decree" is one way to...):

declare (state emphatically and authoritatively)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "decree"):

ordain (issue an order)

enact; ordain (order by virtue of superior authority; decree)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

decree (a legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge))

Credits

 Context examples: 

It is decreed by a merciful Nature that the human brain cannot think of two things simultaneously, so that if it be steeped in curiosity as to science it has no room for merely personal considerations.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He felt himself bound as much in honour as in affection to Miss Morland, and believing that heart to be his own which he had been directed to gain, no unworthy retraction of a tacit consent, no reversing decree of unjustifiable anger, could shake his fidelity, or influence the resolutions it prompted.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

'Then the worse for thy soul!' said he; and with that he broke into a long tale how that on account of the virtues of the Abbot Berghersh it had been decreed by the Pope that whoever should wear the habit of a monk of Beaulieu for as long as he might say the seven psalms of David should be assured of the kingdom of Heaven.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mrs. Ferrars at first reasonably endeavoured to dissuade him from marrying Miss Dashwood, by every argument in her power;—told him, that in Miss Morton he would have a woman of higher rank and larger fortune;—and enforced the assertion, by observing that Miss Morton was the daughter of a nobleman with thirty thousand pounds, while Miss Dashwood was only the daughter of a private gentleman with no more than THREE; but when she found that, though perfectly admitting the truth of her representation, he was by no means inclined to be guided by it, she judged it wisest, from the experience of the past, to submit—and therefore, after such an ungracious delay as she owed to her own dignity, and as served to prevent every suspicion of good-will, she issued her decree of consent to the marriage of Edward and Elinor.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

She bore it very well, and quietly submitted to the family decree that she should not shorten her visit, for since it was too late to say goodbye to Beth, she had better stay, and let absence soften her sorrow.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I should here observe to the reader, that a decree of the general assembly in this country is expressed by the word hnhloayn, which signifies an exhortation, as near as I can render it; for they have no conception how a rational creature can be compelled, but only advised, or exhorted; because no person can disobey reason, without giving up his claim to be a rational creature.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I am too well aware that when, in the inscrutable decrees of Fate, you were reserved for me, it is possible you may have been reserved for one, destined, after a protracted struggle, at length to fall a victim to pecuniary involvements of a complicated nature.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

At that moment a little accident supervened, which seemed decreed by fate purposely to prove the truth of the adage, that misfortunes never come singly, and to add to their distresses the vexing one of the slip between the cup and the lip.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Likewise they decree the things that are not shop and which may be talked about, and those things are the latest operas, latest novels, cards, billiards, cocktails, automobiles, horse shows, trout fishing, tuna-fishing, big-game shooting, yacht sailing, and so forth—and mark you, these are the things the idlers know.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

At first, indeed, I did not feel that natural awe, which the Yahoos and all other animals bear toward them; but it grew upon me by decrees, much sooner than I imagined, and was mingled with a respectful love and gratitude, that they would condescend to distinguish me from the rest of my species.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)