Mandate
Mandate , noun
[Latin mandatum, from mandare to commit to one's charge, order, orig., to put into one's hand; manus hand + dare to give: compare French mandat. See Manual, Date a time, and compare Commend, Maundy Thursday.]
1.
An official or authoritative command, order, or authorization from a superior official to a subordinate; an order or injunction; a commission; a judicial precept.
This dream all-powerful Juno; I bear
Her mighty mandates, and her words you hear.
2.
(Politics) An authorization to carry out a specific public policy, given by the electorate to their representatives; -- it is considered to be implied by the election of a candidate by a significant margin after that candidate has campaigned with that policy as a prominent element of the campaign platform.
3.
Authorization by a multinational body to a nation to administer the government and affairs of a territory, usually a former colony; as, termination of the British mandate in Palestine.
4.
(Canon Law) A rescript of the pope, commanding an ordinary collator to put the person therein named in possession of the first vacant benefice in his collation.
5.
(Scots Law) A contract by which one employs another to manage any business for him. By the Roman law, it must have been gratuitous. — Erskine