attorney general

noun

|Updated on: 8 Aug 2018

Definition of attorney general

plural attorneys general or attorney generals

: the chief law officer of a nation or state who represents the government in litigation and serves as its principal legal adviser

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Recent Examples of attorney general from the Web

The scrutiny intensified Friday when the state’s attorney general directed the state consumer-protection agency to look into whether marketing practices at Temple broke the law, and if the university’s other schools falsified student data.

— kelsey gee, WSJ, "Temple University Fires a Dean Over Falsified M.B.A. Rankings Data," 13 July 2018
However, Ivey’s office has cited the most recent opinion on the issue, offered in 2011 by former attorney general and current senator Luther Strange, as the basis for the governor’s latest edict.

— kaylen ralph, Teen Vogue, "Alabama Sheriffs Might Not Be Able to Pocket Leftover Prisoner Food Funding Anymore," 12 July 2018
California’s terms of office for statewide officials — from governor to attorney general and beyond — are staggered with each presidential term, thus occurring at the midway point of the national campaign cycle.

— john myers, latimes.com, "California's primary election saw higher turnout than recent years, but most voters still skipped it," 10 July 2018
Office tensions grew to the point where Harris left the Hall of Justice for the City Attorney’s Office before winning the district attorney’s job, then going on to be California attorney general and U.S. senator.

— SFChronicle.com, "Kimberly Guilfoyle — SF’s former first lady — now spends time at White House," 8 July 2018
As attorney general, Pruitt filed more than a dozen lawsuits against the agency President Trump would later pick him to lead.

— CBS News, "What's next for Scott Pruitt?," 6 July 2018
Happ, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in 2014, will review the evidence.

— daniel bice, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Watertown police urge criminal charges against former Assembly candidate," 2 July 2018
Craig Wolf, the Republican nominee for Maryland’s attorney general, was one of those candidates in the crowd Sunday afternoon.

— david anderson, The Aegis, "Havre de Grace Independence Parade steps out on Union Ave.," 2 July 2018
Leon Fresco, who served as deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Immigration Litigation in the Obama administration, said officials had always had the ability to hold kids with families past 20 days - if the parents consented to it.

— devlin barrett, Anchorage Daily News, "Trump administration may seek to detain migrant families longer than previously allowed," 30 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'attorney general.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of attorney general

1585

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

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