Au·thor·ize v. t. [imp. & p. p. Authorized p. pr. & vb. n. Authorizing.]
  1. To clothe with authority, warrant, or legal power; to give a right to act; to empower; as, to authorize commissioners to settle a boundary.
  2.  To make legal; to give legal sanction to; to legalize; as, to authorize a marriage.
  3. To establish by authority, as by usage or public opinion; to sanction; as, idioms authorized by usage.
  4. To sanction or confirm by the authority of some one; to warrant; as, to authorize a report.
  A woman's story at a winter's fire,
  Authorized by her grandam.   --Shak.
  5. To justify; to furnish a ground for.
  To authorize one's self, to rely for authority. [Obs.]
     Authorizing himself, for the most part, upon other histories.   --Sir P. Sidney.
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