Definition of "precept" []

• A rule or principle prescribing a particular course of action or conduct. (noun)
• Law An authorized direction or order; a writ. (noun)

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.

• "One cannot decide that this Church precept is false this one true, that that one is empty and useless and that one is meaningful."
• "In ecclesiastical jurisprudence, the word precept is used:"
• "The precept is very weighty. seemeth to have -- or, "thinketh that he hath" (Margin)."