govern

verb

1. 1

   To make and administer the public policy and affairs of; to exercise sovereign authority in.

   The old king governed the land wisely.

2. 2

   To exercise political authority; to run a government.

   Americans are not libertarians in the Cato Institute sense of the word, but they are folk libertarians in this sense of impulsive behaviour, which is a feature of American life that anyone who wants to govern the United States, Democratic or Republican, has to be aware of.

3. 3

   To control the actions or behavior of; to keep under control; to restrain.

   Govern yourselves like civilized people.

   a student who could not govern his impulses

   Find the strength, courage, and discipline to govern yourself or be governed by someone else.

   This female hyena also gets erections and is larger, more aggressive than the male hyenas and lives in matrilineal clans of up to 80 individuals governed by an alpha female matriarch.

4. 4

   To exercise a deciding or determining influence on.

   Chance governs the outcome of many card games.

5. 5

   To have or exercise a determining influence.

6. 6

   obsoleteTo handle, to manage, to oversee (a matter, an affair, a household, etc.).

7. 7

   To control the speed, flow etc. of; to regulate.

   a valve that governs fuel intake

   The investigation reveals that flutter onset is consistently governed by the coupling of the first two structural modes, establishing the primary instability boundary, while a secondary instability pathway involving the third and fourth modes uniquely emerges for the fully extended wing.

8. 8

   obsoleteTo direct the course of, to guide in some direction, to steer.

9. 9

   obsoleteTo look after, to take care of, to tend to (someone or some plant).

   from my vncles country of Medea, Where all my youth I haue bene gouerned, […]

10. 10

    obsoleteTo manage, to control, to work (a tool or mechanical device).

11. 11

    To require that a certain preposition, grammatical case, etc. be used with a word.

    In Latin (Russian, German, etc.), not only verbs, but also prepositions, may govern the noun, pronoun or noun-phrase dependent upon them in a particular case: e.g. ad urbem, ‘to the city’ (ad ‘takes the accusative’: urbem) v. ab urbe, ‘from the city’ (ab ‘takes the ablative’: urbe).

noun

1. 1

   The act of governing

Forms

plural

governs

past tense

governed

past participle

governed

present participle

governing

third person singular

governs