Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for GOV'ERN-MENT
GOV'ERN-MENT, n.
- Direction; regulation. These precepts will serve for the government of our conduct.
- Control; restraint. Men are apt to neglect the government of their temper and passions.
- The exercise of authority; direction and restraint exercised over the actions of men in communities, societies or states; the administration of public affairs, according to established constitution, laws and usages, or by arbitrary edicts. Prussia rose to importance under the government of Frederic II.
- The exercise of authority by a parent or household. Children are often ruined by a neglect of government in parents. Let family government be like that of our heavenly Father, mild, gentle, and affectionate. – Kollock.
- The system of polity in a state; that form of fundamental rules and principles by which a nation or state is governed, or by which individual members of a body politic are to regulate their social actions; a constitution, either written or unwritten, by which the rights and duties of citizens and public officers are prescribed and defined; as, a monarchial government, or a republican government. Thirteen governments thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without the pretense of miracle or mystery, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind. – J. Adams.
- An empire, kingdom or state; any territory over which the right of sovereignty is extended.
- The right of governing or administering the laws. The King of England vested the government of Ireland in the lord lieutenant.
- The persons or council which administer the laws of a kingdom or state; executive power.
- Manageableness; compliance; obsequiousness. – Shak.
- Regularity of behavior. [Not in use.] – Shak.
- Management of the limbs or body. [Not in use.] Spencer.
- In grammar, the influence of a word in regard to construction, as when established usage requires that one word should cause another to be in a particular case or mode.
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