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specially an infringing on the rights of others; specifically, the illegal seizure of sovereign power; -- commonly used with of, also used with on or upon; as, the usurpation of a throne; the usurpation of the supreme power.

One who usurps; especially, one who seizes illegally on sovereign power; as, the usurper of a throne, of power, or of the rights of a patron. A crown will not want pretenders to claim it, not usurpers, if their power serves them, to possess it. South.

s. Bacon. So shalt thou best fulfill, best verify. The prophets old, who sung thy endless reign. Milton.

The governor of a country or province who rules in the name of the sovereign with regal authority, as the king's substitute; as, the viceroy of India.

Of or pertaining to the reign of Queen Victoria of England; as, the Victorian poets. Victorian period. See Dionysian period, under Dyonysian.

ed by, appropriate to, or favorable for, visions. The visionary hour When musing midnight reigns. Thomson.

most to wonder. . . . But five died for the first twenty years of her [Queen Elizabeth's] reign. Fuller. The faith of Christianity is far more vivacious than any mere ravishment of the imagination can ever be. I. Taylor.

practice of traveling. [Obs.] Nations have interknowledge of one another by voyage into foreign parts, or strangers that come to them. Bacon.

ous gage or pledge; to carry on, as a war. [He pondered] which of all his sons was fit To reign and wage immortal war with wit. Dryden. The two are waging war, and the one triumphs by the destruction of the other. I. Taylor.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in the Chinese government.

A staff of authority. Though he had both spurs and wand, they seemed rather marks of sovereignty than instruments of punishment. Sir P. Sidney.

ority and dominion of one over the other, or for any other purpose; armed conflict of sovereign powers; declared and open hostilities. Men will ever distinguish war from mere bloodshed. F. W. Robertson.

uced from Germany, and is supposed to have derived its name from the German term wälsch foreign. -- Welsh parsley, hemp, or halters made from hemp. [Obs. & Jocular] J. Fletcher. -- Welsh rabbit. See under Rabbit.

One of a political party which grew up in England in the seventeenth century, in the reigns of Charles I. and II., when great contests existed respecting the royal prerogatives and the rights of the people. Those who supported the king in his high claims were called Tories, and the advocates of popular rights, of parli…

cts xvii. 30. And yet, as though he knew it not, His knowledge winks, and lets his humors reign. Herbert. Obstinacy can not be winked at, but must be subdued. Locke.

To hold back; to restrain; to keep from action. Withhold, O sovereign prince, your hasty hand From knitting league with him. Spenser.

worlds, where the inhabitants have never violated their allegiance to their almighty Sovereign. W. B. Sprague.

Deserving of; -- in a good or bad sense, but chiefly in a good sense. To reign is worth ambition, though in hell. Milton. This is life indeed, life worth preserving. Addison.

y contemptible; despicable; wicked. [Obs.] "Wretched ungratefulness." Sir P. Sidney. Nero reigned after this Claudius, of all men wretchedest, ready to all manner [of] vices. Capgrave.

t; to wring; to wrest. [R.] The nobility hesitated not to follow the example of their sovereign in writhing money from them by every species of oppression. Sir W. Scott.