Government

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Government \Gov"ern*ment\, n. [F. gouvernement. See {Govern}.]
     1. The act of governing; the exercise of authority; the
        administration of laws; control; direction; regulation;
        as, civil, church, or family government.
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     2. The mode of governing; the system of polity in a state;
        the established form of law.
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              That free government which we have so dearly
              purchased, free commonwealth.         --Milton.
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     3. The right or power of governing; authority.
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              I here resign my government to thee.  --Shak.
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     4. The person or persons authorized to administer the laws;
        the ruling power; the administration.
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              When we, in England, speak of the government, we
              generally understand the ministers of the crown for
              the time being.                       --Mozley & W.
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     5. The body politic governed by one authority; a state; as,
        the governments of Europe.
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     6. Management of the limbs or body. --Shak.
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     7. (Gram.) The influence of a word in regard to construction,
        requiring that another word should be in a particular
        case.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  government
       n 1: the organization that is the governing authority of a
            political unit; "the government reduced taxes"; "the
            matter was referred to higher authorities" [syn: {authorities},
             {regime}]
       2: (government) the system or form by which a community or
          other political unit is governed; "tyrannical government"
       3: the act of governing; exercising authority; "regulations for
          the governing of state prisons"; "he had considerable
          experience of government" [syn: {governing}, {governance},
           {government activity}]
       4: the study of government of states and other political units
          [syn: {politics}, {political science}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  136 Moby Thesaurus words for "government":
     Geopolitik, John Bull, Kreis, Uncle Sam, Washington, Whitehall,
     administration, archbishopric, archdiocese, arrondissement,
     auspices, authority, bailiwick, bishopric, borough, canton, care,
     charge, city, civics, claws, clutches, command, commune, conduct,
     congressional district, constablewick, control, county, cure,
     custodianship, custody, departement, diocese, direction,
     disposition, district, domination, dominion, duchy,
     electoral district, electorate, empery, empire, geopolitics,
     governance, grip, guardianship, guidance, hamlet, hand, handling,
     hands, hundred, husbandry, international relations, iron hand,
     jurisdiction, keeping, lead, leading, magistracy, management,
     managery, managing, manipulation, metropolis, metropolitan area,
     ministry, oblast, okrug, ordering, oversight, parish, pastorage,
     pastorate, pastorship, patronage, pilotage, poli-sci,
     political behavior, political economy, political geography,
     political philosophy, political science, political theory,
     politics, power, precinct, principality, protectorship, province,
     public administration, raj, regime, region, regnancy, regulation,
     reign, riding, rule, running, safe hands, sheriffalty, sheriffwick,
     shire, shrievalty, soke, sovereignty, stake, state, steerage,
     steering, stewardship, superintendence, supervision, sway, talons,
     territory, the Crown, the Establishment, the authorities, the conn,
     the government, the helm, the wheel, town, township, tutelage,
     village, wapentake, ward, wardenship, wardship, watch and ward,
     wing
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  GOVERNMENT, natural and political law. The manner in which sovereignty is 
  exercised in each state. 
       2. There are three simple forms of government, the democratic, the 
  aristocratic, and monarchical. But these three simple forms may be varied to 
  infinity by the mixture and divisions of their different powers. Sometimes 
  by the word government is understood the body of men, or the individual in 
  the state, to whom is entrusted the executive power. It is taken in this 
  sense when the government is spoken of in opposition to other bodies in the 
  state. 
       3. Governments are also divided into monarchical and republican; among 
  the monarchical states may be classed empires, kingdoms, and others; in 
  these the sovereignty resides in, a single individual. There are some 
  monarchical states under the name of duchies, counties, and the like. 
  Republican states are those where the sovereignty is in several persons. 
  These are subdivided into aristocracies, where the power is exercised by a 
  few persons of the first rank in the state; and democracies, which are those 
  governments where the common people may exercise the highest powers. 1 Bouv. 
  Inst. n. 20. See Aristocracy; Democracy; Despotism; Monarchy; Theocracy. 
       4. It should be remembered, however, that governments, for the most 
  part, have not been framed on models. Their parts and their powers grew out 
  of occasional acts, prompted by some urgent expediency, or some private 
  interest, which, in the course of time, coalesced and hardened into usages. 
  These usages became the object of respect and the guide of conduct long 
  before they were embodied in written laws. This subject is philosophically 
  treated by Sir James McIntosh, in his History of England. See vol. 1, p. 71, 
  et seq.