sign manual

American  

noun

signs manual plural

1. a personal signature, especially that of a sovereign or official on a public document.

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sign manual British  

noun

1. law a person's signature in his own hand, esp that of a sovereign on an official document

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• signs manual
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sign manual

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50

Example Sentences

One paper must be signed by the chief of the department; another by his deputy; to a third the royal sign manual is necessary.

From Critical and Historical Essays, Volume III (of 3) by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

The civilized trick of procuring the mystic sign manual known as signature had fastened on them the gyves of perpetual poverty.

From Trail Tales by Gillilan, James David

And there, beyond, stood the wonderful thing, sign manual of modern comfort—a great red automobile with a gallant chauffeur!

From Heroic Spain by O'Reilly, Elizabeth Boyle

That is the sign manual of their intense respectability.

From Black Oxen by Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn

King John, at Runnymede, affixing his sign manual to Magna Charta, with trembling hand, at the dictation of his haughty barons and their retainers.

From Sketches of Reforms and Reformers, of Great Britain and Ireland by Stanton, Henry B.