license to do

a license to (do something)

The authority or permission to do something. The pharmaceutical company treated its sole ownership of lifesaving drug's formula as a license to charge exorbitant amounts of money for it. The secret agent was granted a license to kill by the CIA.
See also: license
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

license to do something

permission, right, or justification to do something. You have no license to behave in that manner! Who granted you license to enter my house without knocking?
See also: license
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • a license to (do something)
  • license
  • deed to
  • play down
  • raison
  • raison d'être
  • être
  • his, your, etc. raison d'être
  • (something) to call (one's) own
  • joy ride
References in periodicals archive
Before the class started, the city's head public nurse called me, and asked for my Hungarian license to do what I wanted to do.
Letter from Hungary