broad seal

American  

noun

1. the official seal of a country or state.

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broad seal British  

noun

1. the official seal of a nation and its government

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Etymology

Origin of broad seal

First recorded in 1530–40

Example Sentences

With the poor I make my treaty; and the heart of man Sets the broad seal of its allegiance there, And ratifies the compact.

From Project Gutenberg

“The depositions and answers were sworn before Edward Byam, Esq., one of the council, and Nathaniel Crump, Esq., speaker of the house of assembly, and were ordered to be sealed with the broad seal of the island, and forwarded immediately to England.”

From Project Gutenberg

Perhaps you will wonder how such an ordinary fellow as this Mr. Wood could have so much interest as to get his Majesty’s broad seal for so great a sum of bad money to be sent to this poor country; and that all the nobility and gentry here could not obtain the same favour, and let us make our own halfpence, as we used to do.

From Project Gutenberg

The letter was folded four-square and tied round with a cord of green silk, and where the threads intersected at the back was a broad seal of dull red wax, bearing the sign of a lamb in its centre.

From Project Gutenberg

If the freedom of the press had been wholly wrested from the printers, it was not the sole grievance in the present state of our literature, for another custom had been assumed which hung on the royal prerogative—that of granting letters patent, or privileged licenses, under the broad seal to individuals, to deal in a specific class of books, to the exclusion of every other publisher.

From Project Gutenberg