mandate

noun

1. An official or authoritative command; an order or injunction; a commission; a judicial precept; an authorization.

   “Enactive. Expositive. / Art. 57. XIII 2. The Registrative, or say Recordative: exercised, by the arrangements and operations, by which, in conformity to corresponding ordinances and mandates, the accounts, given at different periods by the exercise of the statistic function, are kept in contiguity, and in a regular series, for the purpose of reference and comparison.”

2. The order or authority to do something, as granted to a politician by the electorate.

   “John Tyler and James K. Polk both regarded the election results as a mandate for the annexation of Texas.”

   “Instead, May, more sheep than shepherd, has feebly allowed herself to be driven ever further towards an extreme, inflexible, take-it-or-leave-it stance for which she has neither mandate nor credible grounds.”

3. (Canada)A period during which a government is in power.

   “Throughout his last mandate, from 1980 to 1984, Mr. Trudeau insisted that we see ourselves solely as Canadians, that we set aside the historic compromises that underlie Canada as a federation.”

4. (historical)An order by the League of Nations to a member nation to establish a government responsible for a conquered territory, as the colonies of Germany after World War I.
5. (historical)An order by the League of Nations to a member nation to establish a government responsible for a conquered territory, as the colonies of Germany after World War I.
6. (alt-of, alternative, uncommon)Alternative form of man date: a date between two men.

   “Moss: Oh, he's long gone, although Roy's got a mandate with him. Roy: It is not a mandate. I am not a man-woman. We are not married. I am not your wife!”

verb

1. To (officially) require someone to do something or act in a certain way, to give them the authority to do so; to command.

   “A delegate conference was called, and garages invited to mandate their representatives to vote for or against continuance.”

   “Last June Illinois passed a bill requiring the state to trace sexual partners, […] but mandating the department to preserve the confidentiality of reports.”

2. To make mandatory.

   “Federal law mandates that at least one nongroup insurer in your state must provide coverage to everyone, regardless of health issues.”

   “As the Superintendent of Austin, TX, schools I have mandated that our kids must be masked when they start school on Tuesday.”

   “The bill seeks to make IVF treatment more affordable by mandating coverage for fertility treatments under employer-sponsored insurance and certain public insurance plans.”

3. To administer or assign a territory to a nation under a mandate.
4. (Scotland, especially)To repeat, rehearse sermons or speeches aloud.

   “After I have mandated my exercices.”

   “He [sc. Archbishop Secker] then proceeds to express his disapprobation of what is called Mandating of Sermons, or repeating them from memory. This custom prevails much among foreign Divines, and throughout the whole Church of Scotland.”

   “He rose and walked his study, ‘mandating’ his opening sentences with appropriate gestures.”

   “I had only from that evening at six till Sabbath to mandate my two discourses.”