VETO • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Veto

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/vˈitoʊ/ /vˈitˌoʊ/ Listen

noun

Veto n. (pl. vetoes)

An authoritative prohibition or negative; a forbidding; an interdiction. "This contemptuous veto of her husband's on any intimacy with her family."

Specifically:

(a)

A power or right possessed by one department of government to forbid or prohibit the carrying out of projects attempted by another department; especially, in a constitutional government, a power vested in the chief executive to prevent the enactment of measures passed by the legislature. Such a power may be absolute, as in the case of the Tribunes of the People in ancient Rome, or limited, as in the case of the President of the United States. Called also the veto power.

(b)

The exercise of such authority; an act of prohibition or prevention; as, a veto is probable if the bill passes.

(c)

A document or message communicating the reasons of the executive for not officially approving a proposed law; called also veto message. (U. S.) Note: Veto is not a term employed in the Federal Constitution, but seems to be of popular use only.

verb

Veto v. t. (past & past part. vetoed; pres. part. vetoing) To prohibit; to negative; also, to refuse assent to, as a legislative bill, and thus prevent its enactment; as, to veto an appropriation bill.

See images of 'Veto'

Etymology of 'Veto'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Veto" Quotes from Famous Books

... has a simple method of solving difficulties. Speaking of Article 4 of the Convention of 1884, which gives England the right of veto on all treaties contemplated between the South African Republic and foreign ...

— Boer Politics • Yves Guyot

... Superintendent to the very spot in the main room of the Works where, six months before, the Inaugural had been pronounced and the first Veto spoken and enacted. ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 51, January, 1862 • Various

... vetoed the bills, the people had called the King, Monsieur Veto; Marie Antoinette, Madame Veto, and the Dauphin, Little Veto, and now from all sides burst forth the cry, "The red cap for the Dauphin! ...

— Ten Boys from History • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... by making a clear, brief, and dignified defense of the position of Taylor upon the question of the proper use of the veto; he then avows with characteristic candor that he does not know what General Taylor will do as to slavery; he is himself "a Northern man, or rather a Western free-State man, with a constituency I believe to be, and with personal feelings I know to be, against the extension ...

— Abraham Lincoln: A History V1 • John G. Nicolay and John Hay

... truly for excitement. Mite was a young gentleman of some dignity. He sat elevated on a hassock upon a chair to dine at luncheon-time, comporting himself most correctly; but his aunt was sorely chafed at Eden's standing behind his chair, like Sancho's physician, to regulate his diet, and placing her veto upon lobsters, cucumbers, pastry, and glasses of wine with lumps ...

— That Stick • Charlotte M. Yonge

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