advocacy
(ˈædvəkəsɪ)
[a. (14th c.) Fr. advocacie, -atie, avocacie, ad. med.L. advocātia, n. of state, f. advocātus: see advocate and -acy.]
1. The function of an advocate; the work of advocating; pleading for or supporting.
| 1413 Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle i. xv. (1859) 15 Blysful lord!.. I haue spoken of aduocacye, soo that thou sholdest myn aduocate be. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 427/1 He had ocupyed and exerced moche holyly and deuoutelye the fayte of aduocacye in the bysshoppes courte. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 47 Shall he want herein the applause or advocacy of Satan. 1849 Cobden Sp. 21, I will never cease the advocacy of this question. 1867 Carlyle Remin. (1881) II. 13 It is a strange trade, I have often thought, that of advocacy. 1872 Yeats Growth & Viciss. Comm. 273 Whose voice then first began to be heard in advocacy of freedom of commerce. |
2. = advowson, advocation 5.
| 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. III. xii. 194 Bishop Gervase..petitioned the king to grant the royal rights over the see, the rights of advocacy or patronage. |