warrand

Verb

warrant (third-person singular simple present warrants, present participle warranting, simple past and past participle warranted)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To protect, keep safe (from danger).
   • [A]ll honeſt meanes for a man to warrant him-ſelfe from euills, are not onely tolerable, but commendable.1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Constancie”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 21
2. (obsolete, transitive) To give (someone) an assurance or guarantee (of something); also, with a double object: to guarantee (someone something).
   • Crato in a conſultation of his for a noble patient, tels him plainly, that if his Highneſſe will keepe but a good diet, hee will warrant him his former health.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Diet Rectified in Substance”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry...
3. (transitive) To guarantee (something) to be (of a specified quality, value, etc.).
   • Tuc[ca]. [...] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough? / Hiſt[rio]. O, I warrant you, Captaine: and ſpitefully inough too; he ha's one of the moſt ouerflowing villanous wits, in Rome. He will ſlander any man that breathes; If he diſguſt him. / Tucca. I'le know the poor, egregious, nitty Raſcall...1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III
4. (transitive) To guarantee as being true; (colloquial) to believe strongly.
   • That tree is going to fall, I’ll warrant.
5. (transitive) To authorize; to give (someone) sanction or warrant (to do something).
   • I am warranted to search these premises fully.
6. (transitive) To justify; to give grounds for.
   • Circumstances arose that warranted the use of lethal force.

See all 15 meanings of warrant