WRITE, v.t. pret. wrote.; pp. writ, written. [L.]

1. To perform the act of forming characters, letters, or figures, as representatives of sounds or ideas. Learn to write when young.
2. To be employed as a clerk or an amanuensis. A writes for B. D writes in one of the public offices.
3. To play the author; as, he thinks, he speaks, he writes, he sings.
4. To recite or relate in books. Josephus wrote of the wars of the Jews.
5. To send letters. He wrote for all the Jews concerning their freedom. – Esdras.
6. To call one's self; by be entitled; to use the style of. Those who began to write themselves men, but thought no shame to learn. – Fell.
7. To compose; to frame or combine ideas and express then in words. They can write up to the dignity and character of their authors. – Felton.

1. To form by a pen on paper or other material, or by graver on wood or stone; as, to write the characters called letters; to write figures. We write characters on paper with pen and ink; we write them on stone with a graving tool.
2. To express by forming letters and words on paper or stone; as, to write a deed; to write a bill of divorcement. The ten commandments were written with the finger of God on tables of stone. – Exod. xxxi.
3. To engrave. [See the preceding definition.]
4. To impress durably. Write useful truths on the heart.
5. To compose or produce, as an author.
6. To copy; to transcribe.
7. To communicate by letter. I chose to write the thing I durst not speak / To her I lov'd. – Prior.

1. To set down, as legible characters; to form the conveyance of meaning; to inscribe on any material by a suitable instrument; as, to write the characters called letters; to write figures.
2. To form characters, letters, or figures, as representative of sounds or ideas; to express words and sentences by written signs.
   
   
   Chaucer.

   So it stead you, I will write,
   Please you command. Shak.

3. To set down for reading; to express in legible or intelligible characters; to inscribe; as, to write a deed; to write a bill of divorcement; hence, specifically, to set down in an epistle; to communicate by letter.
   
   

   Last night she enjoined me to write some lines to one she loves. Shak.

   I chose to write the thing I durst not speak
   To her I loved. Prior.

4. To be regularly employed or occupied in writing, copying, or accounting; to act as clerk or amanuensis; as, he writes in one of the public offices.
5. Hence, to compose or produce, as an author.
   
   

   I purpose to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time within the memory of men still living. Macaulay.

6. To frame or combine ideas, and express them in written words; to play the author; to recite or relate in books; to compose.
   
   

   They can write up to the dignity and character of the authors. Felton.

7. To impress durably; to imprint; to engrave; as, truth written on the heart.
8. To compose or send letters.
   
   

   He wrote for all the Jews that went out of his realm up into Jewry concerning their freedom. 1 Esdras iv. 49.

9. To make known by writing; to record; to prove by one's own written testimony; -- often used reflexively.
   
   

   He who writes himself by his own inscription is like an ill painter, who, by writing on a shapeless picture which he hath drawn, is fain to tell passengers what shape it is, which else no man could imagine. Milton.

   To write to, to communicate by a written document to. -- Written laws, laws deriving their force from express legislative enactment, as contradistinguished from unwritten, or common, law. See the Note under Law, and Common law, under Common, a.