Definitions

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

  • noun Protection or support; patronage.
  • noun A sign indicative of future prospects; an omen.
  • noun Observation of and divination from the actions of birds.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An augury from birds; an omen or a sign in general: as, to take the auspices; an auspice of good fortune.
  • noun Protection or lead; favoring or propitious influence; patronage: especially in the phrase under the auspices (of).
  • noun A circumstance or conjunction of circumstances betokening success: as, his career was begun under the fairest auspices.

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

  • noun A divining or taking of omens by observing birds; an omen as to an undertaking, drawn from birds; an augury; an omen or sign in general; an indication as to the future.
  • noun Protection; patronage and care; guidance.

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

  • noun Patronage or protection.
  • noun An omen or a sign.
  • noun obsolete Divination from the actions of birds.

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

  • noun a favorable omen

Etymologies

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

[Latin auspicium, bird divination, auspices, from auspex, auspic-, bird augur; see awi- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French auspice, from Latin auspicium, in turn from auspex

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Examples

Comments

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  • a spice flight?

    November 11, 2011

  • I am not a little puzzled to find duress and auspice linked together as "Related words/same context". They are virtual antonyms. So what is the relation?

    December 1, 2011