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The act of governing; the exercise of authority; the administration of laws; control; direction; regulation; as, civil, church, or family government.

Produced by divine grace; influenced or controlled by the divine influence; as, gracious affections.

A man, or body of men, stationed to protect or control a person or position; a watch; a sentinel. The guard which kept the door of the king's house. Kings xiv. 27.

Personal possession; ownership; hence, control; direction; management; -- usually in the plural. "Receiving in hand one year's tribute." Knolles. Albinus . . . found means to keep in his hands the goverment of Britain. Milton.

To manage; to control; to practice skill upon. You shall see how I will handle her. Shak.

A touching, controlling, managing, using, etc., with the hand or hands, or as with the hands. See Handle, v. t. The heavens and your fair handling Have made you master of the field this day. Spenser.

Difficult to resist or control; powerful. The stag was too hard for the horse. L'Estrange. A power which will be always too hard for them. Addison.

To hold in possession or control; to own; as, he has a farm.

o haw and gee about, to lead this way and that at will; to lead by the nose; to master or control. [Colloq.]

Not easily restrained; ungovernable; obstinate; stubborn. Not let headstrong boy my will control. Dryden.

Leading; controlling; ruling; predominant. "Princelike and hegemonical." Fotherby.

One at the place of direction or control; a steersman; hence, a guide; a director. The helms o' the State, who care for you like fathers. Shak.

A condition characterized by a tendency to profuse and uncontrollable hemorrhage from the slightest wounds.

One who has high and controlling authority in sacred things; the chief of a sacred order; as, princely hierarchs. Milton.

One versed in the phenomena of history and the laws controlling them. And historionomers will have measured accurately the sidereal years of races. Lowell.

return falsehoods, And hold a lady in hand. Beaw. & Fl. --To hold in play, to keep under control; to dally with. Macaulay. -- To hold off, to keep at a distance. -- To hold on, to hold in being, continuance or position; as, to hold a rider on. -- To hold one's day, to keep one's appointment. [Obs.] Chaucer. -- To…

is exaggerated, and the will power correspondingly diminished, so that the patient loses control over the emotions, becomes the victim of imaginary sensations, and often falls into paroxism or fits.

ture, and characterized by the occurrence of epileptiform convulsions, which can often be controlled or excited by pressure on the ovaries, and upon other definite points in the body. -- Hys`ter*o*ep`i*lep"tic, a.

A belief, option, or doctrine; a characteristic or controlling principle; as, an essential idea; the idea of development. That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one. Johnson. What is now "idea" for us How infinite the fall of this word, since the time where Milton sang of the Creator conte…

. Book of Common Prayer. Invincible ignorance (Theol.), ignorance beyond the individual's control and for which, therefore, he is not responsible before God.