lettre de cachet

From French lettre de cachet.

lettre de cachet (plural lettres de cachet)

1. (historical) A warrant issued by the monarch in ancien régime France, especially one which imprisons someone without trial.
   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 113:

     This year the King sent it to Troyes, each member ordered there by an individual lettre de cachet.

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 22:

     Louis stepped up persecution of prominent Jansenists, using lettres de cachet to imprison the most subversive [...].

• IPA^(key): /lɛ.tʁə d(ə) ka.ʃɛ/

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lettre de cachet f (plural lettres de cachet)

1. (historical) lettre de cachet