author

1. (US copyright law) The initial owner of the copyright to a work, especially a work made for hire or a work of corporate authorship.Examples: "The author named on the copyright registration for the Android robot is Google Inc."US

2. (obsolete, criminal law) Principal; the primary participant in a crime.Examples: "We hear […]of fratricidal murders, and stern reprisals on their authors."; "Accomplices of a crime or an offence shall incur the same punishment as the authors of such a crime or offence, except when the law will have disposed otherwise."obsolete

3. (archaic) One's authority for something: an informant.Examples: "Let me inform you en passant, Ladies, that those Villains the Heathens, as my Authors tell me, (and I thought it wou'd^([sic]) not be amiss to communicate such a nice Observation to this House) used to call our Saviour Chrestus, and not Christus, by way of Contempt and Derision […]"; "'Wanting the hat,' continues my author, Kirstie, whom I but haltingly follow, for she told this tale like one inspired, 'wanting guns, for there wasna twa grains o' pouder in the house, wi' nae mair weepons than their sticks into their hands, the fower o' them took the road."archaic

4. (figurative) The creator or cause of anything.Examples: "The other, standing nearly head-on toward the hunters, had not proved so good a mark, and though every spear struck not one entered the great heart. For a moment the huge bull stood trumpeting in rage and pain, casting about with its little eyes for the author of its hurt."figuratively