writ

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Law A written order issued by a court, commanding the party to whom it is addressed to perform or cease performing a specified act.
• noun Writings.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun That which is written; a writing: used especially of the Bible, with holy or sacred, often capitalized as a title.
• noun In law, a precept under seal, in the name of the people, or the sovereign, or other competent legal authority, commanding the officer or other person to whom it is addressed or issued to do or refrain from doing some specified act.
• noun A formal instrument or writing of any kind.
• noun In the United States, a mandatory precept issuing out of the clerk's office in any of the courts of law, by the authority and in the name of the State or commonwealth, under the seal of the court from which it issues, bearing teste of the chief justice of the court, if he is not a party, and signed by the clerk of the court. (Heard.) Its object is to compel the appearance of the defendant, or at least to give him due notice that he is sued. In most of the States it has been superseded by a summons, issued by the plaintiff's attorney, giving such notice and requiring the defendant to plead. See also original writ, under original.
• noun The writ is legally capable of enforcement: as, the writ of subpœna runs throughout the state.
• noun The writ is practically capable of enforcement: as, “When lawlessness has yielded to order; when the Queen's writ runs; when the edicts of the civil courts are obeyed; … and when sedition is trampled under foot—then, and then only, is there some chance for the development of remedial measures.” (Edinburgh Rev., CLXV. 587.)
• noun An obsolete form of the third person singular present indicative (for writeth), and an obsolete or archaic form of the past participle, of write.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• imp. & p. p. of write.
• noun That which is written; writing; scripture; -- applied especially to the Scriptures, or the books of the Old and New testaments.
• noun (Law) An instrument in writing, under seal, in an epistolary form, issued from the proper authority, commanding the performance or nonperformance of some act by the person to whom it is directed.
• noun etc. See under Account, Capias, etc.
• noun See under Service.
• 3d pers. sing. pres. of write, for writeth.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun law A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
• noun authority, power to enforce compliance
• noun that which is written; writing
• verb this sense?) (dated) Past participle of write (normally, “written”) and used in the phrase writ large. This form survives in the Scouse dialect (in-fact, it is dominant), but is practically obsolete in all others.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun (law) a legal document issued by a court or judicial officer