GOVERNING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Governing

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/gˈəvərnɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Govern v. t. (past & past part. governed; pres. part. governing)

To direct and control, as the actions or conduct of men, either by established laws or by arbitrary will; to regulate by authority. "Fit to govern and rule multitudes."

To regulate; to influence; to direct; to restrain; to manage; as, to govern the life; to govern a horse. "Govern well thy appetite."

(Gram.) To require to be in a particular case; as, a transitive verb governs a noun in the objective case; or to require (a particular case); as, a transitive verb governs the objective case.

Govern v. i. To exercise authority; to administer the laws; to have the control.

adjective

Governing adj.

Holding the superiority; prevalent; controlling; as, a governing wind; a governing party in a state.

(Gram.) Requiring a particular case.

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Etymology of 'Governing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Governing" Quotes from Famous Books

... to house visiting all over the widely-scattered parish, much talk with gaffers and goodies, in all of which Ida assisted. She would have hated the work had Miss Wendover been a person of the Pardiggle stamp; but as love was the governing principle of all Aunt Betsy's work, her presence was welcome as sunshine or balmy air; so welcome that her sharpest lectures (and she could lecture when there was need) were received with meekness and even gratitude. ...

— The Golden Calf • M. E. Braddon

... guest, if she is a stranger in the town, what the others will probably do in this connection. True hospitality on the part of the hostess is to make her guests at ease, and true politeness on the part of the visitor is to conform to the rules governing the community ...

— The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing - A Manual of Ready Reference • Joseph Triemens

... and herbs with the printed statutes. As for the district mayors, the number of those who do not know how to read and write is really alarming, and the manner in which the civil records are kept is even more so. The danger of this state of things, well-known to the governing powers, is doubtless diminishing; but what centralization (against which every one declaims, as it is the fashion in France to declaim against all things good and useful and strong),—what centralization cannot touch, the Power against ...

— Sons of the Soil • Honore de Balzac

... my Lords, is mine," replied the Queen; "we will rule our journey by your wisdom now, and hope hereafter to have the advantage of governing by it our kingdom.—You will permit my ladies and me, my good lords, to break our fasts along with you—We must be half soldiers ourselves, and ...

— The Abbot • Sir Walter Scott

... the true Self. When this will is weakened; when the attention is constantly slackened, when the mind wanders, this single strand of rope separates and unravels. The "threads" branch out in various directions, no longer in control of the central, governing will; the Self has become dissociated or split-up into various minor Selves—all but parts of the real, total self; yet separate and distinct, nevertheless. And if enough of these threads become joined together, or interwoven, ...

— The Problems of Psychical Research - Experiments and Theories in the Realm of the Supernormal • Hereward Carrington

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