DECREE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does decree mean? 

• DECREE (noun)
  The noun DECREE has 1 sense:

1. a legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge)

  Familiarity information: DECREE used as a noun is very rare.

• DECREE (verb)
  The verb DECREE has 2 senses:

1. issue a decree

2. decide with authority

  Familiarity information: DECREE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DECREE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

decree; edict; fiat; order; rescript

Context example:

a friend in New Mexico said that the order caused no trouble out there

Hypernyms ("decree" is a kind of...):

act; enactment (a legal document codifying the result of deliberations of a committee or society or legislative body)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "decree"):

consent decree (an agreement between two parties that is sanctioned by the court; for example, a company might agree to stop certain questionable practices without admitting guilt)

curfew (an order that after a specific time certain activities (as being outside on the streets) are prohibited)

decree nisi (a decree issued on a first petition for divorce; becomes absolute at some later date)

imperial decree (a decree issued by a sovereign ruler)

judicial separation; legal separation (a judicial decree regulating the rights and responsibilities of a married couple living apart)

programma (an edict that has been publicly posted)

ban; prohibition; proscription (a decree that prohibits something)

stay (a judicial order forbidding some action until an event occurs or the order is lifted)

bull; papal bull (a formal proclamation issued by the pope (usually written in antiquated characters and sealed with a leaden bulla))

Derivation:

decree (decide with authority)

decree (issue a decree)

• DECREE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they decree    ... he / she / it decrees   
Past simple: decreed   
Past participle: decreed   
-ing form: decreeing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Issue a decree

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

The King only can decree

Hypernyms (to "decree" is one way to...):

declare (state emphatically and authoritatively)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "decree"):

ordain (issue an order)

enact; ordain (order by virtue of superior authority; decree)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

decree (a legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Decide with authority

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

decree; rule

Context example:

The King decreed that all firstborn males should be killed

Hypernyms (to "decree" is one way to...):

decide; determine; make up one's mind (reach, make, or come to a decision about something)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "decree"):

override; overrule; overthrow; overturn; reverse (rule against)

rule in; rule out (include or exclude by determining judicially or in agreement with rules)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

decree (a legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge))

 Context examples 

But it was decreed by fortune, my perpetual enemy, that so great a felicity should not fall to my share.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It crushed them with the weight of unending vastness and unalterable decree.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He is connected with the Mafia, which, as you know, is a secret political society, enforcing its decrees by murder.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So he had put forth a decree that whosoever should be able to make her laugh should marry her.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I, in my stiff- necked rebellion, almost cursed the dispensation: instead of bending to the decree, I defied it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The decree is issued by somebody.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Four new fish species were discovered in the National Copper Reserve and Associates (RENCA), abolished by a presidential decree.

(Report unveils 381 new plant and animal species in Amazon, Agência Brasil)

He passed his hand complacently over his bald head, and said with ostentatious resignation: My dear, we will not anticipate the decrees of fortune.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

To listen to conversation about such things would mean to be bored, wherefore the idlers decree that such things are shop and must not be talked about.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)