authorize Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb grant authorization or clearance for
    clear; authorise; pass.
    • Clear the manuscript for publication
    • The rock star never authorized this slanderous biography
  2. verb give or delegate power or authority to
    empower; authorise.
    • She authorized her assistant to sign the papers

WordNet

Au"thor*ize transitive verb
Etymology
OE. autorize, F. autoriser, fr. LL. auctorizare, authorisare. See Author.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Authorized ; present participle & verbal noun Authorizing
Definitions
  1. To clothe with authority, warrant, or legal power; to give a right to act; to empower; as, to authorize commissioners to settle a boundary.
  2. To make legal; to give legal sanction to; to legalize; as, to authorize a marriage.
  3. To establish by authority, as by usage or public opinion; to sanction; as, idioms authorized by usage.
  4. To sanction or confirm by the authority of some one; to warrant; as, to authorize a report.
    A woman's story at a winter's fire, Authorized by her grandam. Shak.
  5. To justify; to furnish a ground for. Locke.

Webster 1913