approbate

American  

[ap-ruh-beyt] / ˈæp rəˌbeɪt /

verb (used with object)

approbated, approbating

1. to approve officially.

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approbate British  

/ ˈæprəˌbeɪt /

verb

1. Scots law to accept as valid

2. Scots law to accept part of a document and reject those parts unfavourable to one's interests

3. to sanction officially

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Other Word Forms

• approbator
  noun

Etymology

Origin of approbate

1400–50; late Middle English < Latin approbātus approved (past participle of approbāre ), equivalent to ap- ap- ¹ + probātus proved; see probate

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

approbate approbated approbating

Alan?' said my father—'Would you approbate and reprobate, sir?

From Redgauntlet by Scott, Walter, Sir

We pick and choose, take and leave, approbate and reprobate in a breath.

From Obiter Dicta by Birrell, Augustine

Then if cunning Latin books were translate Into English, well correct and approbate, All subtle science in English might be learned, As well as other people in their own tongues did.

From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 1 by Hazlitt, William Carew

The Stadtholder was too wary a politician to approbate immediately so sweeping a proposal, and referred it to the States-General.

From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11 by Johnson, Rossiter

Gracious knows, I don't approbate coarseness, it shocks me, but narvous sensibility makes me sick.

From Nature and Human Nature by Haliburton, Thomas Chandler

"I guess that 'ere chap has cut his eye-teeth," said the President; "let him pass as approbated."

From The Clockmaker Or, the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville by Haliburton, Thomas Chandler

His course at the Divinity School in Cambridge was much broken; nevertheless, in October, 1826, he was "approbated to preach" by the Middlesex Association of Ministers.

From Poems Household Edition by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

I guess that are chap has cut his eye teeth, said the President, let him pass as approbated.

From The Clockmaker — or, the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville by Haliburton, Thomas Chandler

“But,” says one, “the traffic in ardent spirit is a lawful business; it is approbated by law, and is therefore right.”

From Select Temperance Tracts by American Tract Society

I was approbated by the Boston Association, I suspect, as a person well known, but known as an anomaly, and admitted in charity.—Memorial of John S. Popkin, D.D., p. lxxxv.

From A Collection of College Words and Customs by Hall, Benjamin Homer

The intrepid and energetic officer who had planned and executed this scheme of western exploration gave me a copy of his official letter to the Secretary of War, warmly approbating the conduct of Capt.

From Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers by Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe

From involuntary comparison of the representative feeling of the spectator with its original in the person observed arises an agreeable or disagreeable feeling of judgment, a judgment of value, approbating or rejecting the latter.

From History of Modern Philosophy From Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time by Falckenberg, Richard