Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To prohibit (an action or thing) or forbid (someone) to do something, especially by legal or ecclesiastical order.
  • transitive verb To cut or destroy (a line of communication) by firepower so as to halt an enemy's advance.
  • transitive verb To confront and halt the activities, advance, or entry of.
  • noun An authoritative prohibition, especially by court order.
  • noun Roman Catholic Church An ecclesiastical censure that bars an individual, members of a given group, or inhabitants of a given district from participation in most sacraments.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To declare authoritatively against, as the use or doing of something; debar by forbidding; prohibit peremptorily.
  • To prohibit from some action-or proceeding; restrain by prohibitory injunction; estop; preclude.
  • Specifically Eccles., to cut off from communion with a church; debar from ecclesiastical functions or privileges.
  • Synonyms Prohibit, etc. See forbid.
  • noun In law, an incompetent; one judicially declared to be incapable of earing for his person or estate. See interdiction, 2.
  • noun An official or authoritative prohibition; a prohibitory order or decree.
  • noun In Roman law, an adjudication, by a solemn ordinance issued by the pretor, in his capacity of governing magistrate, for the purpose of quieting a controversy, usually as to peaceable possession, between private parties. ;
  • noun In the Roman Catholic Church, an ecclesiastical sentence which forbids the right of Christian burial, the use of the sacraments, and the enjoyment of public worship, or the exercise of ecclesiastical functions.
  • noun In Scots law, an injunction. See suspension.

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

  • transitive verb To forbid; to prohibit or debar.
  • transitive verb (Eccl.) To lay under an interdict; to cut off from the enjoyment of religious privileges, as a city, a church, an individual.
  • noun A prohibitory order or decree; a prohibition.
  • noun (R. C. Ch.) A prohibition of the pope, by which the clergy or laymen are restrained from performing, or from attending, divine service, or from administering the offices or enjoying the privileges of the church.
  • noun (Scots Law) An order of the court of session, having the like purpose and effect with a writ of injunction out of chancery in England and America.

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

  • noun A papal decree prohibiting the administration of the sacraments from a political entity under the power of a single person (e.g., a king or an oligarchy with similar powers). Exteme unction/Anointing of the sick are excepted.

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

  • verb destroy by firepower, such as an enemy's line of communication
  • noun a court order prohibiting a party from doing a certain activity
  • verb command against
  • noun an ecclesiastical censure by the Roman Catholic Church withdrawing certain sacraments and Christian burial from a person or all persons in a particular district

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of Middle English enterditen, to place under a church ban, from Old French entredit, past participle of entredire, to forbid, from Latin interdīcere, interdict- : inter-, inter- + dīcere, to say; see deik- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English entrediten, from Old French entredire ("forbid"), from Latin interdīcere, present active infinitive of interdīcō ("prohibit, forbid"), from inter ("between") + dīcō ("say"), from Proto-Indo-European *deikō.

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Examples

  • Some think that the term interdict is properly applied only to orders of abstention, because it is derived from the verb 'interdicere,' meaning to denounce or forbid, and that orders of restitution or production are properly termed decrees; but in practice they are all called interdicts, because they are given 'inter duos,' between two parties.

    The Institutes of Justinian John Baron Moyle 1891

  • They're pushing further and further out, trying to what they call interdict communications John supply lines leading to and from Kandahar that could be used by the Taliban.

    CNN Transcript Dec 6, 2001 2001

  • These at last obtained an interdict from the usurper Smerdis the Magian (called Artaxerxes in Ezr

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • The Inkatha Freedom Party Youth Brigade (IFPYB) called the interdict "the greatest assault on freedom since 1994".

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2005

  • He said the interdict was a continuation of Nextcom's successful legal challenge against Satra's first recommendation in April, and it was hoped that the regulatory body's final decision would be overturned.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2000

  • This interdict, which is borrowed, except for a few minor modifications, from c. viii, "De privilegiis", in VI of Boniface VIII, is therefore reserved to the competent prelate.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8: Infamy-Lapparent 1840-1916 1913

  • The particular personal interdict, which is a real censure, affects individuals much in the same way as excommunication.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8: Infamy-Lapparent 1840-1916 1913

  • It will suffice to recall the interdict imposed in 1200 on the Kingdom of

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8: Infamy-Lapparent 1840-1916 1913

  • One should also abolish certain punishments inflicted by the canon law, especially the interdict, which is doubtless the invention of the evil one.

    Articles 10-18. Twenty-Seven Articles Respecting the Reformation of the Christian Estate 1909

  • In 'Uti possidetis' the party in possession at the issue of the interdict was the winner, provided he had not obtained that possession from his adversary by force, or clandestinely, or by permission; whether he had obtained it from some one else in any of these modes was immaterial.

    The Institutes of Justinian John Baron Moyle 1891

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