English▸ noun (in tsarist Russia) a decree with the force of law:
Tsar Alexander I issued his famous ukase unilaterally decreeing the North Pacific Coast Russian territory.
▪ an arbitrary or peremptory command:
he was defying the publisher in the very building from which he had issued his ukase.
– ORIGIN from Russian ukaz ‘ordinance, edict’, from ukazatʹ ‘show, decree’.