writ

plural writs

1. countablelawA written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
2. AustraliaCanadaNew ZealandUKcountableA document ordering that an election be conducted.
3. UKcountableAn order issued by the House of Lords summoning peers to the Chamber.
4. uncountableAuthority, power to enforce compliance.

   We can't let them take advantage of the fact that there are so many areas of the world where no one's writ runs.

   2009, Stephen Gale et al., The War on Terrorism: 21st-Century Perspectives, Transaction Publishers, →ISBN, page 30

   1 more example

   Within Lololand, of course, no Chinese writ runs, no Chinese magistrate holds sway, and the people, more or less divided among themselves, are under the government of their tribal chiefs.

   1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China

5. archaiccountableuncountableThat which is written; writing.

   Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ

   1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   Then to his hands that writ he did betake, / Which he disclosing, red thus, as the paper spake.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25

   These aforementioned three donkeys I hereby order immediately transferred as payment for others herewith received, which shall comprise, by this compensatory writ, full and complete payment thereof.

   Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, pages 201-202

1. dateddialectalpastsimple past of write

   I know the hand, in faith tis a faire hand, And whiter then the paper it writ on, Is the faire hand that writ.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]

   1 more example

   Lou's not Times foole, though roſie lips and cheeks VVithin his bending ſickles compaſſe come, Loue alters not with his breefe houres and vveekes, But beares it out euen to the edge of doome: If this be error and vpon me proued, I neuer vvrit, nor no man euer loued.

   1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 116”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC, signature H, recto

2. dateddialectalparticiplepastpast participle of write up

   Let Virtuoſo’s in five years be Writ; / Yet not one Thought accuſe thy toil of Wit.

   c. 1678 (date written; published 1682), J[ohn] Dryden, “Mac Flecknoe”, in Mac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 7

   4 more examples

   I know the hand, in faith tis a faire hand, And whiter then the paper it writ on, Is the faire hand that writ.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]

   For as this is the Liquor of modern Hiſtorians, nay, perhaps their Muſe, if we may believe the Opinion of Butler, who attributes Inſpiration to Ale, it ought likewiſe to be the Potation of their Readers; ſince every Book ought to be read with the ſame Spirit, and in the ſame Manner, as it is writ.

   1749, Henry Fielding, “Containing five Pages of Paper”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 2

   The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, / Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit / Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,[…]

   1859, Omar Khayyam, “Quatrain LI”, in [Edward FitzGerald], transl., Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia. […], facsimile edition, London: Bernard Quaritch, […], →OCLC, page 11

   But the film is a saddening bore 'Cause I wrote it ten times or more It's about to be writ again

   1971, “Life on Mars?”, performed by David Bowie