charter

Definition

A document issued by some authority, creating a public or private institution, and defining its purposes and privileges.

Etymology

From Middle English charter, chartre, borrowed from Old French chartre, from Latin chartula (diminutive of charta). See chart. Doublet of chartula.

Example Sentences

• "My mother, / Who has a charter to extol her blood, / When she does praise me, grieves me."
• "In what Derbyshire police say amounts to a "thieves' charter," three judges ruled that because the car's identity had been changed it was impossible to trace the legal owner and therefore the person found in possession of it was entitled to keep it."
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