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Hence, used with the possessive pronoun, the title of an emperor, king or queen; -- in this sense taking a plural; as, their majesties attended the concert. In all the public writs which he [Emperor Charles V.] now issued as King of Spain, he assumed the title of Majesty, and required it from his subjects as a mark of…

other. Burke. The invisible powers of heaven seemed to militate on the side of the pious emperor. Gibbon.

A sole or supreme ruler; a sovereign; the highest ruler; an emperor, king, queen, prince, or chief. He who reigns Monarch in heaven, ... upheld by old repute. Milton.

The nickname of a crackbrained Italian who fancied himself an emperor. [Obs.] Shak.

A ball or globe forming part of the regalia of an emperor or other sovereign. It is encircled with bands, enriched with precious stones, and surmounted with a cross; -- called also globe.

A Roman emperor notorius for debauchery and barbarous cruelty; hence, any profligate and cruel ruler or merciless tyrant. -- Ne*ro"ni*an, a.

ngs, and opinions of the old Roman jurists, made in the sixth century by direction of the emperor Justinian, and forming the leading compilation of the Roman civil law. Kent.

The principle of succession in royal families, especially among the Eastern Roman emperors, by which a younger son, if born after the accession of his father to the throne, was preferred to an elder son who was not so born. Sir T. Palgrave.

A celebrated cinerary urn or vase found in the tomb of the Emperor Alexander Severus. It is owned by the Duke of Portland, and kept in the British Museum.

To take without express consent; to assume. The Byzantine emperors appear to have . . . postulated a sort of paramount supremacy over this nation. W. Tooke.

guard, of provisions; the pretorian prefect, who was commander of the troops guarding the emperor's person.

pretorian power or authority. Pretorian bands or guards, or Pretorians (Rom. Hist.), the emperor's bodyguards, instituted by the Emperor Augustus in nine cohorts of 1,000 men each. -- Pretorian gate (Rom. Antiq.), that one of the four gates in a camp which lay next the enemy. Brande & C.

The son of a king or emperor, or the issue of a royal family; as, princes of the blood. Shak.

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.

profitable study or profession. What was so profitable to the empire became fatal to the emperor. Arbuthnot. -- Prof"it*a*ble*ness, n. -- Prof"it*a*bly, adv.

her, and protested against, or made a solemn declaration of dissent from, a decree of the Emperor Charles V. and the Diet of Spires, in 1529, against the Reformers, and appealed to a general council; -- now used in a popular sense to designate any Christian who does not belong to the Roman Catholic or the Greek Church.…

as an emblem of rank or authority; specifically, the purple rode or mantle worn by Roman emperors as the emblem of imperial dignity; as, to put on the imperial purple. Thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and purple, and scarlet. Ex. xxvi. 1.

Loyalty; devotion. [Obs.] To express our reality to the emperor. Fuller.

The time during which a king, queen, or emperor possesses the supreme authority; as, it happened in the reign of Elizabeth.

Of or pertaining to a republic. The Roman emperors were republican magistrates named by the senate. Macaulay.