1. (law) a legal document giving official permission to do something
   "He obtained a licence to practice medicine";
   - license [N. Amer], permit
    
2. The act of giving a formal (usually written) authorization
   "The city granted a licence for the new restaurant";
   - license [N. Amer], permission, permit
    
3. Freedom to deviate deliberately from normally applicable rules or practices (especially in behaviour or speech)
   "The artist took licence with historical facts in his painting"; "Poetic licence allowed the writer to bend grammatical rules";
   - license [N. Amer]
    
4. Excessive freedom; lack of due restraint
   "when liberty becomes licence, dictatorship is near"; "the intolerable licence with which the newspapers break … the rules of decorum";
   - license [N. Amer]

1. Authorize officially
   "The government licenced the new drug";
   - license, certify

Derived forms: licencing, licences, licenced

Type of: authorisation [Brit], authorise [Brit], authorization, authorize, clear, empowerment, instrument, legal document, legal instrument, liberty, official document, pass

Encyclopedia: Licence, Tom