govern
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
Anglo-Norman and Old French governer, Latin gubernō, from Ancient Greek κυβερνάω (kubernaō, “I steer, drive, govern”)
Pronunciation [edit]
Verb [edit]
govern (third-person singular simple present governs, present participle governing, simple past and past participle governed)
- (transitive) To make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in.
- (transitive) To control the actions or behavior of; to keep under control; to restrain.
- Govern yourselves like civilized people.
- a student who could not govern his impulses.
- (transitive) To exercise a deciding or determining influence on.
- Chance usually governs the outcome of the game.
- (transitive) To control the speed, flow etc. of; to regulate.
- a valve that governs fuel intake.
- (intransitive) To exercise political authority; to run a government.
- (intransitive) To have or exercise a determining influence.
- (transitive) To require that a certain preposition, grammatical case, etc. be used with a word; sometimes used synonymously with collocate.
Related terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
to exercise sovereign authority in
to control the actions of
to exercise a determining influence on
to control the speed or magnitude of
(intr.) to exercise political authority
(intr.) to have a determining influence
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
