Embargo

[from Span. em5ar^ar, wiharagary to detain.] A detention of a vessel in port.* A prohibition to sail. Johnson, J.^ 2 Wheaton's R, 148.

A restraint or prohibition imposed by the public authorities of a country on merchant vessels, or other ships, to prevent their leaving its ports, and sometimes amounting, (as the U. S. embargo act of Dec. 22, 1807,) to an entire interdiction of commercial intercourse.

Jacobsen*s Sea Laws. 382. 1 Kent's Com. 60, 432.

See U. S. Digest, Embargo and Non-intercourse. Embargoes are peculiar to a state of war, either actual or apprehended. They are imposed in England by the mere proclamation of the sovereign, without the intervention of parliament.

1 BL Com. 270, 271.

The word is written by Cowell and Blount, Jmbargo.