nihil obstat (redirected from nihil obstats)

ni·hil ob·stat  (nhl bstät, -stt, n-)

n.

1. Roman Catholic Church An attestation by a church censor that a book contains nothing damaging to faith or morals.

2. Official approval, especially of an artistic work.

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[Latin, nothing hinders : nihil, nothing + obstat, third person sing. present tense of obstre, to hinder.]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	nihil obstat - the phrase used by the official censor of the Roman Catholic Church to say that a publication has been examined and contains nothing offensive to the church imprimatur, sanction, countenance, endorsement, indorsement, warrant - formal and explicit approval; "a Democrat usually gets the union's endorsement"
	2.	nihil obstat - authoritative approval sanction - the act of final authorization; "it had the sanction of the church"