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, or degree; most considerable or important; chief; main; as, the principal officers of a Government; the principal men of a state; the principal productions of a country; the principal arguments in a case. Wisdom is the principal thing. Prov. iv. 7.

A settled rule of action; a governing law of conduct; an opinion or belief which exercises a directing influence on the life and behavior; a rule (usually, a right rule) of conduct consistently directing one's actions; as, a person of no principle. All kinds of dishonesty destroy our pretenses to an honest principle of…

The dignity, office, or government, of a prior. T. Warton.

ther European countries, a licensed teacher or lecturer having no share in the university government and dependent upon fees for remuneration.

ndictment for libel, -- such as those made by persons communicating confidentially with a government, persons consulted confidentially as to the character of servants, etc. -- Privileged debts (Law), those to which a preference in payment is given out of the estate of a deceased person, or out of the estate of an inso…

One who maintains that certainty is impossible, and that probability alone is to govern our faith and actions.

Probate Court, or Court of Probate, a court for the probate of wills. -- Probate duty, a government tax on property passing by will. [Eng.]

An officer who discharged the duties of a consul without being himself consul; a governor of, or a military commander in, a province. He was usually one who had previously been consul.

Under the government of a proconsul; as, a proconsular province.

A governor of a province under the emperors; also, one who had charge of the imperial revenues in a province; as, the procurator of Judea. Procurator fiscal (Scots Law), public prosecutor, or district attorney.

llness or exuberance; bountiful; exceedingly liberal; giving without stint; as, a profuse government; profuse hospitality. A green, shady bank, profuse of flowers. Milton.

A magistrate who, having been pretor at home, was appointed to the government of a province. [Written also proprætor.]

To protract; to prolong; to extend. [Obs.] He prorogued his government. Dryden.

er before a legal tribunal, and pursuing them to final judgment on behalf of the state or government, as by indictment or information.

e person who institutes and carries on a criminal suit against another in the name of the government. Blackstone.

to destroy; to deprive of efficiency; to ruin; as, to prostrate a village; to prostrate a government; to prostrate law or justice.

eligious order, etc. Lord Protector (Eng. Hist.), the title of Oliver Cromwell as supreme governor of the British Commonwealth (1653-1658).

Government by a protector; -- applied especially to the government of England by Oliver Cromwell.

o provide against the inclemency of the weather; to provide for the education of a child. Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Burke.

A country or region, more or less remote from the city of Rome, brought under the Roman government; a conquered country beyond the limits of Italy. Wyclif (Acts xiii. 34). Milton.