[f. ENDORSE v. + -MENT.] The action of endorsing.
1. The action of endorsing (a document); concr. a signature, memorandum or remark endorsed upon a document. See ENDORSE v. 1.
1547. Act 1 Edw. VI., c. 5 § 5. The same Endorsement to be signed with the Hand of the said Warden.
1586. Sir A. Paulet, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 220, III. 7. By reason as did appeare by an indorsement, that they had bene mistaken and were sent to Wyndsor.
1682. Scarlett, Exchanges, 34. By his Endorsement he made it his own Bill.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 468. The payee … may by indorsement, or writing his name in dorso or on the back of it, assign over his whole property to the bearer.
1783. Burke, Rep. Committee on India, Wks. XI. 289–90. When he made the endorsement, or whether in fact he has made it at all, are matters known only to himself.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., II. 46. Many bills … are at last presented for payment quite covered with indorsements.
1866. Crump, Banking, 121. An indorsement is a conditional contract on the part of the indorser to pay the immediate or any succeeding indorsee, in case of the acceptor’s or maker’s default.
2. fig. Confirmation, ratification, approving testimony.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Sunday, i. Th’ indorsement of supreme delight Writ by a friend.
1863. Draper, Intell. Devel. Europe (1865), 552. It received a most emphatic endorsement from the organic world.
1879. H. George, Progr. & Pov., I. i. (1881), 18. This doctrine … bears the indorsement of the very highest names.
