To establish; to appoint; to enact; to form and prescribe; as, to institute laws; to institute rules and regulations.

To found; to originate and establish, as to institute a new order of nobility; to institute a court.

To ground or establish in principles; to educate; to instruct; as, to institute children in the principles of a science.

To begin; to commence; to set in operation; as, to institute an inquiry; to institute a suit.

To invest with the spiritual part of a benefice or the care of souls.

Established law; settled order.

Precept; maxim; principle. To make the Stoic institutes thy own.

A book of elements or principles; particularly, a work containing the principles of the Roman law.