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

This is so congenial with the constitution of our own state, that I need not advance any argument to induce the free citizens of Massachusetts to approbate it.

From Essays on the Constitution of the United States by Paul Leicester Ford

I approbate the one, I reprobate the other.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Noah Webster

While throughout the world you rove, Thus uphold your banners; Give these reasons why you prove Hearts of men and manners: "To reprove the reprobate, Probity approving, Improbate from approbate To remove, I'm moving."

From Wine, Women, and Song Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse by John Addington Symonds

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

From Redgauntlet by Sir Walter Scott

I approbate domestic factories, but nothin further for us.

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

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 Thomas Chandler Haliburton

“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

In 1826, after three years' study, he was "approbated to preach" by the Middlesex Association of Ministers.

From Ralph Waldo Emerson by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Observe their faces as they enter, and you will perceive some shades there, which, if they are approbated and admitted, will be gone when they come out.—Scenes and Characters in College, New Haven, 1847, p.

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

The students used to speak of having their performances approbated by the instructors.

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

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 Richard Falckenberg

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 Henry Rowe Schoolcraft