Attorney General of the United States
7
4.8
- noun
- /əˈtɜrni ˈdʒɛnərəl əv ðə juˈnaɪtɪd steɪts/
- Formal
:
Fiscal General de los Estados Unidos
- The President nominated a new Attorney General of the United States to lead the Department of Justice.
- Attorney General of the United States, William Barr
- Attorney General of the United States, Richard Thornburgh
- Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder
Examples
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Judge Bell served on the Fifth Circuit for fifteen years until President Jimmy E. Carter's nomination to become the 72nd Attorney General of the United States.
Academic text (2010) -
Pursuant to the verdict of guilty as to all counts... the defendant is committed to the custody... of the Attorney General of the United States... for imprisonment in a federal institution... to be selected by him for a period of 30 years.
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This action was approved by the Attorney General of the United States.
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But remember this: I am the Attorney General of the United States.
Fiction book (1990) -
Klee was Attorney General of the United States and had acquired the reputation of being a very dangerous man.
Fiction book (1990) -
In 2002, Congress transferred this authority to the Director of the ATF in coordination with the Attorney General of the United States.
Academic text (2016) -
We now have the Attorney General of the United States telling Congress that it's not against the law for the President to violate the law if his own Department of Justice says it's not.
Blog text (20) -
Your father's Lionel Kaffee, former Navy Judge Advocate and Attorney General of the United States, died in 1985.
Fiction book (1992) -
By the order of the Attorney General of the United States, A. Mitchell Palmer, I have a warrant here for the arrest of one John Silas Reed.
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Justice Stevens finished his argument by noting that the legal aliens "were admitted as a result of decisions made by Congress and the President, implemented by the Immigration and Naturalization Service acting under the Attorney General of the United States," so any "decision to impose that deprivation of an important liberty" had to be made "at a comparable level of government" to satisfy due-process requirements.
Academic text (2017)
Synonyms
248
6.8
A top lawyer who represents the government in legal matters
4
4.6
The main lawyer for the United States government who leads the Department of Justice
1
5.5
The top lawyer in the United States government who leads the Department of Justice and enforces federal law
Surface Forms
Morphology
attorney + general + of + the + united + state
Knowing 'attorney' (lawyer) and 'general' (meaning 'overall' or 'high-ranking' in this title) gives a learner a reasonable hint that this is a chief or senior lawyer, so the composition is partly predictable. However, the postpositive use of 'general' (not the military rank) and the specific institutional role ('head of the Department of Justice' and 'chief law enforcement officer') require cultural/political knowledge beyond word meanings, so the full sense is not fully derivable.
Etymology
Attorney General of the United States is a title made of attorney (a lawyer) and general (here meaning 'main' or 'overall', not a military rank). The image is of the country's 'chief lawyer', so the title means the top government lawyer who leads legal work and makes sure federal laws are followed.