Forms: 3–6 -ise(n, 4–7 -ice, 6 -yce, 7– justice. [a. AF. justice-r = OF. justicier, -cer, -ser (Pr. justiziar, Pg. justiçar, It. giustiziare), ad. med.L. justitiāre to exercise justice over, bring to trial, punish, refl. to submit to justice, f. L. justitia JUSTICE.]
† 1. trans. To administer justice to; to rule, govern. Obs.
c. 1320. Cast. Love, 298. Wiþ-oute whom he ne mai His kindom wiþ pees wysen, Ne wiþ rihte hit iustisen.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 2230. Regned Rehudybras … To iustice þe folk fol wys he was.
1481. Caxton, Godfrey, 289. [They] made an hye noble man … named Raoul, for to be kynge vpon them, by whom they wold be Iustised and gouerned.
† 2. To try in a court of law; to bring to trial; to punish judicially. Obs.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 100. Þe kyng in þe courte of þe lay þe clerkes wild justise.
1581. Lambarde, Eiren., I. ix. (1602), 39. The names of such, as (being indited) did flie, and did refuse to be Iustised.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. xxix. ¶ 5. Perswading the iusticing her.
1732. Neal, Hist. Purit., I. 415. The body of a subject is to be justiced secundum legem terrae, as Magna Charta … saith.
3. intr. To administer justice (as a justice of the peace); see JUSTICING vbl. sb.
