official permission or approval; " authority for the program was renewed several times"

give authority or permission to

a mechanism of social control for enforcing a society's standards

give religious sanction to, such as through on oath; " sanctify the marriage"

Solemn or ceremonious ratification; an official act of a superior by which he ratifies and gives validity to the act of some other person or body; establishment or furtherance of anything by giving authority to it; confirmation; approbation.

Anything done or said to enforce the will, law, or authority of another; as, legal sanctions.

The act of giving authority to; authority; formal approval.

To give indorsement to; to confirm; to approve; as, to sanction a marriage.

Act of ratifying, or giving authority to: confirmation: support.

To give validity to: to authorize: to countenance.

Confirmation; support.

To authorise; confirm.

To approve authoritatively; countenance.

Authoritative confirmation; justification.

Ratification on the part of a superior; confirmation; penalty.

To give validity or authority to; to ratify; to confirm.

A confirming or giving authority or validity to; ratification; authority; influence or custom.

To ratify or confirm; to give authority to; to countenance or support.

" A man of realization does not perform any miracle until he receives an inward sanction," Master explained. – Autobiography of a YOGI by Paramhansa Yogananda

The case requires, and the law and the Constitution sanction, this punishment. – Abraham Lincoln and the Union A Chronicle of the Embattled North, Volume 29 In The Chronicles Of America Series by Nathaniel W. Stephenson

Does not marriage only sanction motherhood, even though conceived in hatred, in compulsion? – Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman

No sooner was her conduct approved than she tried to win a general sanction. – Two Poets Lost Illusions Part I by Honore de Balzac

All classes of citizens here have welcomed it with joy, which will be renewed when it is sent back with the sanction of the French government. – The Freedmen's Book by Lydia Maria Child

He can only enter upon this work under the sanction of Divine authority. – Thirty Years in the Itinerancy by Wesson Gage Miller

A sanction for the law sometimes provided is that the judge cannot draw his salary until he has made oath that he is in no default. – The American Judiciary by Simeon E. Baldwin, LLD

This love was a holy thing to him, and so much of it as he could not have with the sanction of holy authority he would not now attempt at all to secure. – Running Sands by Reginald Wright Kauffman

When Cassius went about soliciting friends to engage in this design against Caesar, all whom he tried readily consented, if Brutus would be head of it; for their opinion was that the enterprise wanted not hands or resolution, but the reputation and authority of a man such as he was, to give as it were the first religious sanction, and by his presence, if by nothing else, to justify the undertaking; that without him they should go about this action with less heart, and should lie under greater suspicions when they had done it, for, if their cause had been just and honorable, people would be sure that Brutus would not have refused it. – Plutarch-Lives-of-the-noble-Grecians-and-Romans by Clough, Arthur Hugh

The latter would consider, for instance, what Luther did, taught, or sanctioned: the former, what Luther,- a Luther,- would now do, teach, and sanction. – Literary Remains, Vol. 2 by Coleridge

I cannot sanction such robbery. – The Chouans by Honore de Balzac

Some few men and women of the highest rank might rejoice in the same distinction, but only if they had obtained the Inca's sanction. – Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru by Albert Réville

For certain, in those matters, the reason has put a sanction on the conscience. – The Village Wife's Lament by Maurice Hewlett

The letter lay there; I dared not send it without my father's sanction. – A Monk of Cruta by E. Phillips Oppenheim

On showing good cause for such a course, any person, as in Scotland, with the sanction of the Commissioners, to send two medical men to test the condition of any patient under control. – Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles by Daniel Hack Tuke

Not more than three or four days, I should imagine; and now I must consult you upon a plan which my uncle and myself have formed, but for which we require your sanction, and Ellen's consent. – Ellen Middleton--A Tale by Georgiana Fullerton

My sister will surely do nothing that her brother cannot sanction?" – Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter by Lawrence L. Lynch

If you won't come to me without the sanction of the law, I will wait while you get it. – The Knave of Diamonds by Ethel May Dell