Definition of "mandamus" [‖Man•da•mus]

• A writ issued by a superior court ordering a public official or body or a lower court to perform a specified duty. (noun)
• To serve or compel with such a writ. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Cap* Husk writes me to keep his mandamus to bring with me, and pray let L "ColP Sherburne write what he wou'd have done with his; and so much for mandamus*"
• "Basically, it ` s an emergency stay and notice amend (ph), asking for a writ of mandamus, which is in a way saying that the judge didn ` t execute the law correctly."
• "They've asked for something called a mandamus, an order from a judge to begin the count once again, that manual hand count."