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What is "discretionary"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
discretionary
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
discretionary income
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
award
▪ Hon. Members must recall that these are, after all, discretionary awards.
▪ They can, however, apply for a discretionary award from their local education authority.
▪ If authorities are failing to increase their spending on discretionary awards commensurately, that is their decision.
decision
▪ This gives rise to discretionary decisions by adjudicators and administrators, undermining generality and discrediting the ideal of the rule of law.
▪ He gives to Adam the discretionary decision as to whether to pass the letter along to Hetty.
fund
▪ The combined new firm has discretionary funds of more than £4 billion under management, to which Bell Lawrie contributes about half.
▪ Still, the new managers did have some discretionary funds and resources for distribution.
▪ McIntosh worked in the discretionary fund management operation of the firm and also looked after the dealing and institutional sales side.
▪ Such a body may also be more consistent in applying discretionary funds for research and innovative practice.
grant
▪ Funding themselves through training remains a problem for many students, given the virtual demise of discretionary grants.
▪ In the sixth year they would have to seek discretionary grants.
▪ The Minister may also refer to the discretionary grants from local education authorities.
▪ Twenty-five percent of the funds would go for discretionary grants, with the protected communities also having access to this money.
▪ Those without a formula entitlement, both inside and outside metropolitan areas, would have to rely on discretionary grants.
income
▪ I had a party today and used the discretionary income for it as a token of my approval.
▪ They have a lot of flexible time and a lot have discretionary income.
▪ As discretionary income moves from the young to the old, advertising will follow it.
life
▪ That was a case concerning discretionary life sentences and the remarks in the case must be read in that context.
▪ The courts may also impose a discretionary life sentence for certain other serious crimes.
▪ Mr. Handscomb and the other applicants for judicial review were serving discretionary life sentences.
▪ I would also hold that he was not obliged to do so in discretionary life sentence cases.
▪ I shall consider later what was then said by Mr. Hurd about discretionary life sentences.
power
▪ Under a trust for sale the trustees obviously can sell, and they are given by statute a discretionary power to retain.
▪ The newspapers argued that while the judge had discretionary power, he could not ban cameras completely.
▪ In line with the services provided by other governmental agencies much local government activity occurs through the medium of discretionary powers.
▪ How is the force organized and how extensive is its discretionary power?
▪ Nothing was done to arrest this by the local council, which had discretionary powers to do so.
▪ He accepted that the court did, under section 82, have the wide discretionary power of rectification contended for.
▪ Much the same is true of the discretionary powers of the police.
▪ Everything is scripted for you; there is no room to use your mind or exercise discretionary power.
trust
▪ We have also been influenced by representations about the position of privately owned companies held on discretionary trusts.
▪ Wealth Protector, which combines a discretionary trust with a choice of investment plans.
▪ There may, for instance, be a foreign discretionary trust which wishes to acquire a lease in the United Kingdom.
▪ Mr X gives property to an overseas discretionary trust.
▪ The trust was a discretionary trust.
▪ Thus discretionary trusts have lost many of their fiscal advantages.
▪ He transfers assets to a discretionary trust.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Judges have discretionary powers over sentencing of criminals.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As a result, the discretionary powers of sentencers remained largely unconstrained and out of control.
▪ In the sixth year they would have to seek discretionary grants.
▪ It would mean cutting discretionary domestic programs by one-third, but Dole does not specify how he would do this.
▪ Still, the new managers did have some discretionary funds and resources for distribution.
▪ Such laws frequently confer considerable discretionary authority on public administrators.
▪ The timing of all subsequent follow up appointments and endoscopies in the healing phase was discretionary.
▪ This gives rise to discretionary decisions by adjudicators and administrators, undermining generality and discrediting the ideal of the rule of law.
▪ We have also been influenced by representations about the position of privately owned companies held on discretionary trusts.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Discretionary

Discretional \Dis*cre"tion*al\, Discretionary \Dis*cre"tion*a*ry\, [Cf. F. discr['e]tionnaire.] Left to discretion; unrestrained except by discretion or judgment; as, an ambassador with discretionary powers.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
discretionary

1680s (implied in discretionarily); see discretion + -ary.

Wiktionary
discretionary

a. available at one's discretion; able to be used as one chooses; left to or regulated by one's own discretion or judgment.

Related phrases:
WordNet
discretionary

  1. adj. having or using the ability to act or decide according to your own discretion or judgment; "The commission has discretionary power to award extra funds" [syn: discretional]

  2. (especially of funds) not earmarked; available for use as needed; "discretionary funds"; "discretionary income"

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "discretionary".

From her vantage point, Dixon assessed the man who controlled the county school board and the only bank in town, and who had enough discretionary funds to offer a reward that was larger than the base income of many Chickasaw County families.

Ethan was at last, after much debate, given broad discretionary powers to choose another supplier on the basis of the freshest information available at Kline Station.

French nation, by its subsequent act, had condoned it, and formally conferred dictatorial powers on the prince-president, the principal had approved the act of his agent, and given him discretionary powers, and nothing more was to be said.

The planet was virtually under martial law now, and the Sentients had been allowed fewer discretionary powers.

Upon emergency act of Parliament, I have been given broad discretionary powers.

The funds in a discretionary account are not ours to do with as we please.

I have a discretionary account, and my broker doubles my money every year.

We have some discretionary income in our budget and we know how starved the Tran are for metal.

The local residents were, for the most part, poor, with little or no discretionary income, and even if The Store paid only minimum wage, the overhead for a place like this had to be at least double the most optimistic sales projections.

And grown men, young and old, well-off and not so well-off, still devoted a substantial portion of their free time and discretionary income to the pursuit.

Apart from wasting the enormous amount of capital invested in all the other millions of signs and billboards, the amounts of discretionary spending power still available must be infinitesimal.

So three years ago I had her open a discretionary trust account at Houston Bank and Trust and empty her savings accounts into it.

They embraced the wise resolution of choosing six deputies or representatives, of whom Villehardouin was one, with a discretionary trust to direct the motions, and to pledge the faith, of the whole confederacy.

Everything that could be put into a discretionary trust had been put into it, so there would be very little to go through probate.

It is up to the Crown (actually, the Cabinet), and not the Commons, to initiate economic policy and propose budgets, and the Crown has an additional discretionary fund drawn from the extensive Crown lands and industrial holdings, but the Crown and Lords both know that they cannot long defy the Commons if the lower house decides to withhold budget approval.