Dictionary entry

Dictate (2)

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Dic″tate, v. i. 1. To speak as a superior; to command; to impose conditions (on).

Who presumed to dictate to the sovereign. Macaulay.

2. To compose literary works; to tell what shall be written or said by another.

Sylla could not skill of letters, and therefore knew not how to dictate. Bacon.