licence

licence
    n 1: excessive freedom; lack of due restraint; "when liberty
         becomes license dictatorship is near"- Will Durant; "the
         intolerable license with which the newspapers break...the
         rules of decorum"- Edmund Burke [syn: {license}, {licence}]
    2: freedom to deviate deliberately from normally applicable
       rules or practices (especially in behavior or speech) [syn:
       {license}, {licence}]
    3: a legal document giving official permission to do something
       [syn: {license}, {licence}, {permit}]
    v 1: authorize officially; "I am licensed to practice law in
         this state" [syn: {license}, {licence}, {certify}] [ant:
         {decertify}, {derecognise}, {derecognize}]
    

licence \licence\ (l[imac]"sens), licenced \licenced\, licencee
\licencee\
   Same as {license}, {licensed}, {licensee}.
   [WordNet 1.5]
    

License \Li"cense\ (l[imac]"sens), n. [Written also {licence}.]
   [F. licence, L. licentia, fr. licere to be permitted, prob.
   orig., to be left free to one; akin to linquere to leave. See
   {Loan}, and cf. {Illicit}, {Leisure}.]
   1. Authority or liberty given to do or forbear any act;
      especially, a formal permission from the proper
      authorities to perform certain acts or to carry on a
      certain business, which without such permission would be
      illegal; a grant of permission; as, a license to preach,
      to practice medicine, to sell gunpowder or intoxicating
      liquors.
      [1913 Webster]

            To have a license and a leave at London to dwell.
                                                  --P. Plowman.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The document granting such permission. --Addison.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Excess of liberty; freedom abused, or used in contempt of
      law or decorum; disregard of law or propriety.
      [1913 Webster]

            License they mean when they cry liberty. --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. That deviation from strict fact, form, or rule, in which
      an artist or writer indulges, assuming that it will be
      permitted for the sake of the advantage or effect gained;
      as, poetic license; grammatical license, etc.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Leave; liberty; permission.
        [1913 Webster]
    

23 Moby Thesaurus words for "licence":
      authority, authorization, carte blanche, certificate, charter,
      credentials, departure, deviation, dispensation, disregard,
      divergence, entitlement, free choice, freedom, latitude, leave,
      liberty, nonconformity, papers, permission, permit, privilege,
      right