Search the Dictionary

Conformed to a rule; agreeable to an established rule, law, principle, or type, or to established customary forms; normal; symmetrical; as, a regular verse in poetry; a regular piece of music; a regular verb; regular practice of law or medicine; a regular building.

To adjust by rule, method, or established mode; to direct by rule or restriction; to subject to governing principles or laws. The laws which regulate the successions of the seasons. Macaulay. The herdsmen near the frontier adjudicated their own disputes, and regulated their own police. Bancroft.

A rule or order prescribed for management or government; prescription; a regulating principle; a governing direction; precept; law; as, the regulations of a society or a school. Regulation sword, cap, uniform, etc. (Mil.), a sword, cap, uniform, etc., of the kind or quality prescribed by the official regulations.…

A petty king; a ruler of little power or consequence.

Rule; regulation. [Obs.] Bacon. Jer. Taylor.

Royal authority; supreme power; sovereignty; rule; dominion. He who like a father held his reign. Pope. Saturn's sons received the threefold reign Of heaven, of ocean,, and deep hell beneath. Prior.

Strictness of fidelity in conforming to any practice, as if it were an enjoined rule of conduct. [R.] Those parts of pleading which in ancient times might perhaps be material, but at this time are become only mere styles and forms, are still continued with much religion. Sir M. Hale.

a need. One of those who believe that they can fill up every requirement contained in the rule of righteousness. J. M. Mason. God gave her the child, and gave her too an instinctive knowledge of its nature and requirements. Hawthorne.

Rule. [Obs.]

dies by incessant revels. Rambler. Master of the revels, Revel master. Same as Lord of misrule, under Lord.

To fail to follow suit when holding a card of the suit led, in violation of the rule of the game; to renege. Hoyle.

Rule. [Obs.] Chaucer.

One well versed in the rules and principles of rhetoric. The understanding is that by which a man becomes a mere logician and a mere rhetorician. F. W. Robertson.

just; according with truth and duty; just; true. That which is conformable to the Supreme Rule is absolutely right, and is called right simply without relation to a special end. Whately.

is suitable for being roasted. A fat swan loved he best of any roost [roast]. Chaucer. To rule the roast, to be at the head of affairs. "The new-made duke that rules the roast." Shak.

n which recurs according to a fixed law, and a limited number of rhymes recurring also by rule.

tition of forms of speech without attention to the meaning; mere repetition; as, to learn rules by rote. Swift. till he the first verse could [i. e., knew] all by rote. Chaucer. Thy love did read by rote, and could not spell. Shak.

fighters or boxers are in actual contest without an intermission, as prescribed by their rules; a bout.

To furnish with first principles or rules; to insrtuct in the rudiments. Gayton.

That may be ruled; subject to rule; accordant or conformable to rule. Bacon.