Definitions

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

  • noun An authoritative order or decree; an edict.
  • noun A proclamation of a czar having the force of law in imperial Russia.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An edict or order, legislative or administrative, emanating from the Russian government.
  • noun Hence Any official proclamation.

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

  • noun In Russia, a published proclamation or imperial order, having the force of law.
  • noun an order or edict by someone holding absolute authority.

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

  • noun An authoritative proclamation; an edict, especially decreed by a Russian czar or (later) emperor.
  • noun figuratively Any absolutist order and/or arrogant proclamation

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

  • noun an edict of the Russian tsar

Etymologies

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

[French, from Russian ukaz, decree, from Old Church Slavonic ukazŭ, a showing, proof : u-, at, to + kazati, to point out, show.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Russian указ (ukáz, "edict, decree"), from Old East Slavic указъ (ukáz, "edict"), from указать (ukazat’, "to show, decree"), from Old Church Slavonic указати (ukazati, "to show, decree"), itself formed from the intensifying prefix у- (u-) (denoting a concrete purpose) + казати (kazati, "to show, order"). Compare Dutch oekaze, German Ukas, etc.

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Examples

  • U.S. v. Alaska, 422 U.S. 184, 190 (1975) (“in 1821, Tsar Alexander I issued a ukase that purported to exclude all foreign vessels from the waters within 100 miles of the Alaska coast”).

    The Volokh Conspiracy » The Russian Influence on American Law 2010

  • At his ukase the population ebbed and flowed over a hundred thousand miles of territory, and cities sprang up or disappeared at his bidding.

    CHAPTER 5 2010

  • But no drug maker, ever, has formally and so publicly challenged the ukase of the FDA—an agency that can make or break companies and is known for punishing those who challenge it.

    Race Against the Cure 2011

  • Am I to expect tomorrow your ukase that I give up Scotch and soda or your patronage?

    The House of Pride and Other Tales of Hawaii:The House of Pride 2010

  • The unfortunate governor's ukase had precipitated a general debauch for all hands.

    Chapter 16 2010

  • But no drug maker, ever, has formally and so publicly challenged the ukase of the FDA—an agency that can make or break companies and is known for punishing those who challenge it.

    Race Against the Cure 2011

  • And, like his olden nights, his ukase went forth that there should be no quarrelling nor fighting, offenders to be dealt with by him personally.

    Chapter XIII 2010

  • It’s certainly more artful typography than that of the Economist, which goes in the opposite direction on all these measures as if following the ukase “white space bad; more words good.

    Note To 'Newsweek': Jesus Sells 2010

  • It’s certainly more artful typography than that of the Economist, which goes in the opposite direction on all these measures as if following the ukase “white space bad; more words good.

    Note To 'Newsweek': Jesus Sells 2010

  • But we rested, too,  inside our bedded gulag, a mutual blasphemy that was one great, unobeyed ukase, our traitorous lie as yet unpunished in any Sibirskoye labor camp.

    Soviet Adam Henry Carri 2010

Comments

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  • Frum the Russian word указ – ukaz, "edict".

    January 3, 2008