Writ

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪt

Origin

From Middle English writ, iwrit, ȝewrit, from Old English writ ("letter, book, treatise; scripture, writing; writ, charter, document, deed") and ġewrit ("writing, something written, written language; written character, bookstave; inscription; orthography; written statement, passage from a book; official or formal document, document; law, jurisprudence; regulation; list, catalog; letter; text of an agreement; writ, charter, deed; literary writing, book, treatise; books dealing with a subject under notice; a book of the Bible; scripture, canonical book, the Scriptures; stylus"), from Proto-Germanic *writą ("fissure, writing"), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey-, *wrī- ("to scratch, carve, ingrave"). Cognate with Scots writ ("writ, writing, handwriting"), Icelandic rit ("writing, writ, literary work, publication").

Full definition of writ

Noun

1. (legal) A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
2. authority, power to enforce compliance
• 2009, Stephen Gale et al., The War on Terrorism: 21st-Century PerspectivesWe can't let them take advantage of the fact that there are so many areas of the world where no one's writ runs.
3. (obsolete) that which is written; writing
• SpenserThen to his hands that writ he did betake,
  Which he disclosing read, thus as the paper spake.
• KnollesBabylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ

Derived terms

• drop the writ
• Holy Writ
• writ of habeas corpus

Verb

1. (dated, nonstandard) Past participle of write
• Omar Khayyam (in translation)The moving finger writes, and having writ, not all your piety or wit can lure it back to cancel half a line

Usage notes

The form writ survives in standard dialects only in the phrase writ large, though it remains common in some dialects (e.g. Scouse).

Related terms

• writ large