a document, issued by a sovereign or state, outlining the conditions under which a corporation, colony, city, or other corporate body is organized, and defining its rights and privileges.
2.
(often initial capital letter) a document defining the formal organization of a corporate body; constitution: the Charter of the United Nations.
3.
authorization from a central or parent organization to establish a new branch, chapter, etc.
4.
a grant by a sovereign power creating a corporation, as the royal charters granted to British colonies in America.
5.
Also called charter party.a contract by which part or all of a ship is leased for a voyage or a stated time.
of or pertaining to a method of travel in which the transportation is specially leased or hired for members of a group or association: a charter flight to Europe.
12.
that can be leased or hired for exclusive or private use: a charter boat for deep-sea fishing.
13.
done or held in accordance with a charter: a charter school.
Origin: 1200–50; Middle English chartre < Old French < Latin chartul(a) little paper (by assimilation), equivalent to chart(a) (see charta) + -ula-ule
mid-13c., from O.Fr. chartre "charter," from L. chartula, dim. of charta "paper, document" (see chart). The verb meaning "to hire" is attested from 1806. Charterhouse, the great English public school founded in London in 1611, is a folk etymology from chartreux (see