GOVERNMENT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Government

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/gˈəvərmənt/ /gˈəvərnmənt/ Listen

noun

Government n.

The act of governing; the exercise of authority; the administration of laws; control; direction; regulation; as, civil, church, or family government.

The mode of governing; the system of polity in a state; the established form of law. "That free government which we have so dearly purchased, free commonwealth."

The right or power of governing; authority. "I here resign my government to thee."

The person or persons authorized to administer the laws; the ruling power; the administration. "When we, in England, speak of the government, we generally understand the ministers of the crown for the time being."

The body politic governed by one authority; a state; as, the governments of Europe.

Management of the limbs or body.

(Gram.) The influence of a word in regard to construction, requiring that another word should be in a particular case.

See images of 'Government'

Etymology of 'Government'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Government" Quotes from Famous Books

... acquitted; those of the party who were prisoners of the Crown were sentenced to imprisonment; but on Government being petitioned by their free mates, who protested the innocence ...

— A Source Book Of Australian History • Compiled by Gwendolen H. Swinburne

... different function, capacity, surroundings, employment, and so on. At the same time, is it not safe to infer that there is a possible maximum of happiness which every being has attained, or will attain, under a government ...

— Love's Final Victory • Horatio

... not, my dear Edith," replied her sister-in-law, "if all accounts be true; for the French Government complained of their being half-starved! However, be that as it may, Dufresne used to plunder away amongst the cottagers, until their anger at losing their stock led to his recapture and remission to durance vile. Once he actually made his way to London; when, calling at the house ...

— Bob Strong's Holidays - Adrift in the Channel • John Conroy Hutcheson

... cruel saying that nations always have the governments they deserve. Were this true, we should have reason to despair of mankind, for where can we find a government with which a decent man would shake hands? It is all too clear that the masses, those who work, are unable to exercise due control over the men who rule them. Enough for the masses that they invariably have to pay for the errors or the crimes of their rulers. It would be too much, ...

— The Forerunners • Romain Rolland

... Jurgen got on garrulously. The religion of Hell is patriotism, and the government is an enlightened democracy. This contented the devils, and Jurgen had learned long ago never to fall out with either of these codes, without which, as the devils were fond of observing, Hell would not be ...

— Jurgen - A Comedy of Justice • James Branch Cabell

More quotes...