writ
writ Lexical Profile
writ Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A formal written order issued by a court, sovereign, or other body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction, commanding the addressee to perform or refrain from performing a specified act.
"The defense attorney filed a writ of habeas corpus to challenge the legality of the client's detention."
Something written, especially sacred scripture or an authoritative text (most commonly in the phrase "Holy Writ").
"The committee treated the founder's original charter as if it were sacred writ that could never be amended."
One's recognized power, authority, or sphere of effective control (usually in the expression "one's writ runs").
"In the remote mountain provinces, the central government's writ barely ran beyond the garrison towns."
• verb
To form letters, words, or symbols on a surface; an archaic past tense and past participle of "write" (now chiefly preserved in the phrase "writ large").
"The novel presents the personal anxieties of its protagonist as the struggles of an entire generation writ large."
Word Nuance & Usage
As a verb form, "writ" is an archaic past tense and past participle of "write" that survives almost exclusively in fixed idioms such as "writ large" (made obvious or magnified in scale).
• Rhymes for writ
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English "writ" (something written, document, or letter), derived from the Proto-Germanic root of "writan" (to score, outline, or write).