Definitions

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

  • adjective Permitted by law; legal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Lawful; allowable: opposed to illicit: as, “licit establishments,”
  • Synonyms Legal, etc. See lawful.

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

  • adjective Lawful.

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

  • adjective Not forbidden by formal or informal rules.
  • adjective law Explicitly established or constituted by law.

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

  • adjective authorized, sanctioned by, or in accordance with law
  • adjective sanctioned by custom or morality especially sexual morality

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French licite, from Latin licitus, past participle of licēre, to be permitted.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin licitus ("lawful"), perfect participle of licet ("pertaining to the law").

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Examples

  • Hearing boys shouting and F'licit's steam-whistle shrieks, he had dropped the rail he was holding and rushed down the hill, thinking that she was being tormented.

    A Breath of Snow and Ashes Gabaldon, Diana 2005

  • While there were sufficient controls over "licit" narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and "precursor" chemicals used to make illicit drugs, implementation was hampered by a lack of co-ordination.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2005

  • The Gradual propers are strongly recommended by the GIRM, so these are just as useful now as then, and remember that there is no official translation of the Gradual propers, so these are perfectly fine for use in any parish (but not within the Extraordinary Form; they would be useful for the 1965 Mass but I don't believe that this Missal is licit in any venue).

    More English Propers (1964) 2009

  • From helping grape-growers in Afghanistan to training the news media in Egypt; from instructing education ministry workers in Iraq to developing licit agriculture in Colombia; from building better health service delivery to creating capacity for data-based policy decision-making; our work helps transform societies in permanent ways, helping those who need it most and supporting US policies overseas.

    Betsy Bassan: A Big Day for International Development Companies and the Development Debate Betsy Bassan 2011

  • Who can gain licit or illicit access to this information the Chinese government? and how it might be used are the great unaddressed issues.

    The Google Problem Isn't Antitrust Jr. Holman W. Jenkins 2011

  • The ONDCP 2011 National Drug Control Strategy seems to be aware of the fact that we cannot simply battle illicit drugs; we must dig deeper and address the root of the problem -- widespread drug demand for both licit and illicit drugs.

    Deni Carise: Response to 2011 National Drug Control Strategy Deni Carise 2011

  • There's no scarcity of reliable information about Iran's nuclear programs, licit and illicit.

    Now For a Real Iran Debate Bret Stephens 2011

  • From helping grape-growers in Afghanistan to training the news media in Egypt; from instructing education ministry workers in Iraq to developing licit agriculture in Colombia; from building better health service delivery to creating capacity for data-based policy decision-making; our work helps transform societies in permanent ways, helping those who need it most and supporting US policies overseas.

    Betsy Bassan: A Big Day for International Development Companies and the Development Debate Betsy Bassan 2011

  • This is like a lobby group composed of publicans and fanatically loyal customers asserting that the consumption of alcohol is only licit inside of a licensed premises, that any consumption outside of such is illicit.

    Archive 2009-08-01 Hal Duncan 2009

  • Some of us are even called to impose pain on ourselves as a spiritual discipline (the late Pope John Paul II whipped himself) and sometimes it can be imposed on other people for their own correction - I think corporal and capital punishment are licit, for example.

    Matthew Yglesias » Endgame 2010

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