*veto*

adv. In a covetous manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Strong desire. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

When workmen strive to do better than well,
They do confound their skill in covetousness. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A strong or inordinate desire of obtaining and possessing some supposed good; excessive desire for riches or money; -- in a bad sense. [ 1913 Webster ]

Covetousness, by a greed of getting more, deprivess itself of the true end of getting. Sprat.

Syn. -- Avarice; cupidity; eagerness. [ 1913 Webster ]

. The retention by the President of the United States of a bill unsigned so that it does not become a law, in virtue of the following constitutional provision (Const. Art. I., sec. 7, cl. 2): “If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law.” Also, an analogous retention of a bill by a State governor. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n.; pl. Vetoes [ L. veto I forbid. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. An authoritative prohibition or negative; a forbidding; an interdiction. [ 1913 Webster ]

This contemptuous veto of her husband's on any intimacy with her family. G. Eliot. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Specifically: -- [ 1913 Webster ]

(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. [ 1913 Webster ]

(b) The exercise of such authority; an act of prohibition or prevention; as, a veto is probable if the bill passes. [ 1913 Webster ]

(c) A document or message communicating the reasons of the executive for not officially approving a proposed law; -- called also veto message. [ U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Veto is not a term employed in the Federal Constitution, but seems to be of popular use only. Abbott. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Vetoed p. pr. & vb. n. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]