Word Direct Answers

petition

petition is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 4 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.This last petition heard of all her prayer. Dryden.
  2. 2.A formal written request addressed to an official person, or to an organized body, having power to grant it; specifically (Law), a supplication to government, in either of its branches, for the granting of a particular grace or right; -- in distinction from a memorial, which calls certain facts to mind; also, the written document. Petition of right (Law), a petition to obtain possession or restitution of property, either real or personal, from the Crown, which suggests such a title as controverts the title of the Crown, grounded on facts disclosed in the petition itself. Mozley & W. -- The Petition of Right (Eng. Hist.), the parliamentary declaration of the rights of the people, assented to by Charles I.
  3. 3.To make a prayer or request to; to ask from; to solicit; to entreat; especially, to make a formal written supplication, or application to, as to any branch of the government; as, to petition the court; to petition the governor. You have . . . petitioned all the gods for my prosperity. Shak.
  4. 4.To make a petition or solicitation.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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