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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Interdict


INTERDICT', verb transitive [Latin interdico, interdictum; inter and dico, to speak.]

1. To forbid; to prohibit. An act of congress interdicted the sailing of vessels from our ports. Our intercourse with foreign nations was interdicted.

2. To forbid communion; to cut off from the enjoyment of communion with a church.

An archbishop may not only excommunicate and interdict his suffragans, but his vicar-general may do the same.

IN'TERDICT, noun [Latin interdictum.] Prohibition; a prohibiting order or decree.

1. A papal prohibition by which the clergy are restrained from performing divine service; a species of ecclesiastical censure. The pope has sometimes laid a whole kingdom under an interdict

2. A papal prohibition by which persons are restrained from attending divine service, or prevented from enjoying some privilege.