provide evidence for; stand as proof of; show by one's behavior, attitude, or external attributes; " His high fever attested to his illness"; " The buildings in Rome manifest a high level of architectural sophistication"; " This decision demonstrates his sense of fairness"

a legal document giving official permission to do something

freedom to deviate deliberately from normally applicable rules or practices ( especially in behavior or speech)

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

Leave; permission; authority; excess; contempt of law or of necessary restraint; permission to sell excisable articles, or to keep a house for the sale of malt liquors and spirits.

At present, she induced her husband to intervene with the Government so that the printing licence might be granted without delay. – Balzac by Frederick Lawton

For the moment she forgot all about the licence, and turned upon Mr Elsworthy with an emphasis which almost drive that troubled citizen to his knees. – The Perpetual Curate by Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant

Two days afterwards an announcement appeared in The Times, and the world learnt that Robert Henley and Miss Rhoda Parnell had been married at the British Embassy at Paris by special licence by the Bishop of Oronoco. – Old Kensington by Miss Thackeray

Leave out the two " general" shops, the greengrocer's and the " off licence"; leave out also the one where the agent and collector lives, that leaves us forty- one houses of nine rooms let out as furnished apartments. – London's Underworld by Thomas Holmes

I will marry you when you like, to- morrow, whenever you can get a licence. – Bye-Ways by Robert Smythe Hichens

The old laws of hospitality still give this licence to a stranger. – A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland by Samuel Johnson

The merchant ships which had been detained at that port and Carlshamn, as also the colonial produce and other British property, had been by his firm and temperate conduct released and sent under licence to various ports on the Continent. – Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez. Vol II by Sir John Ross

Our largest licence somehow didn't stray toward Brown. – Notes of a Son and Brother by Henry James

Chief among the exciting causes were the repressive measures of Camden and the licence of the Militia and Yeomanry. – William Pitt and the Great War by John Holland Rose

At one time all the ships trading in the China Seas had a licence to carry a certain quantity of firearms for purposes of defence. – 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad

Marriage by Special Licence. – Routledge's Manual of Etiquette by George Routledge