say-so

plural say-sos · alternative sayso

1. informalAuthority, as backing some statement, injunction, or command.

   On whose say-so?

   5 more examples

   I wouldn't buy anything that expensive just on the say-so of a saleman.

   You are not to go into that room without my say-so.

   At the moment, and in "an emergency", you or I could be sent to the bin, willy-nilly, on the say-so of a single doctor (who may never have seen us before, and need have no particular experience of mental illness), so long as the application is supported by one of our relatives, or by a "social worker".

   1973, New Scientist, volume 58, number 852, page 822

   the answer is that we just 'think' ourselves to Be Goodness Itself, we confer that Goodness upon ourselves by say-so, […]

   1988, Boris Aldanov, The human predicament, volume 1, page 134

   We could only know the authors are eye witnesses by taking it on their say-so, that is, by believing them, or by believing a string of say-sos.

   2007, Francesca Aran Murphy, God Is Not a Story: Realism Revisited

   Synonyms: leave, permission