Authorize

a. [Fr. auto riser.] To give authority to; to empower; to give a right to act. Deaf to complaints, they wait upon the ill, Till some safe crisis authorize their skill."-Dryden. -To make legal; to legalize. "Yourself first made that title which I claim, claim,.. First bid me love, and authoriz'd my flame." - Dryden. -To establish by authority. "Authorized in a nation by custom and use."- Sir W. Temple. -To accredit; to countenance; to support; as, to author the a report. Au'thorized, p. a. Having authority; supported by authority. Au'thorle , a . Without an author or anthority. Authorly, a. Pertaining or belonging to an author. (R.) Authorship, n. Quality or state of being an author. Au'to, is a prefix which enters into the composition of many English words derived from the Greek pronoun autos , self; as autocrat , autobiography . In some cases it is applied to the subject, as autocrat , automaton ; in others, to the object, as autobiography , autocratic ; and sometimes it denotes a mere reference to the subject, as au tochthon. These differences of meaning sometimes lead to ambiguity; as in autograph , which means either a machine that writes of itself, or a writing done by one's own hand.