| Learning / English Dictionary |
GOVERNOR
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A control that maintains a steady speed in a machine (as by controlling the supply of fuel)
Synonyms:
governor; regulator
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("governor" is a kind of...):
control; controller (a mechanism that controls the operation of a machine)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "governor"):
flywheel (regulator consisting of a heavy wheel that stores kinetic energy and smooths the operation of a reciprocating engine)
timer (a regulator that activates or deactivates a mechanism at set times)
Derivation:
govern (bring into conformity with rules or principles or usage; impose regulations)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The head of a state government
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("governor" is a kind of...):
politician (a leader engaged in civil administration)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "governor"):
bey (the governor of a district or province in the Ottoman Empire)
eparch (the governor or prefect of an eparchy in ancient Greece)
governor general (a governor of high rank)
military governor (the head of a government established by the military (as in a defeated country))
nabob; nawab (a governor in India during the Mogul empire)
proconsul (a provincial governor of consular rank in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire)
satrap (a governor of a province in ancient Persia)
vicereine; viceroy (governor of a country or province who rules as the representative of his or her king or sovereign)
Derivation:
govern (exercise authority over; as of nations)
governorship (the office of governor)
gubernatorial (relating to a governor)
Context examples:
I prevailed on the governor to call up Heliogabalus’s cooks to dress us a dinner, but they could not show us much of their skill, for want of materials.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Lap, in the old obsolete language, signifies high; and untuh, a governor; from which they say, by corruption, was derived Laputa, from Lapuntuh.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
This lord Munodi was a person of the first rank, and had been some years governor of Lagado; but, by a cabal of ministers, was discharged for insufficiency.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I then desired the governor to call up Descartes and Gassendi, with whom I prevailed to explain their systems to Aristotle.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
For his highness the governor ordered me to call up whatever persons I would choose to name, and in whatever numbers, among all the dead from the beginning of the world to the present time, and command them to answer any questions I should think fit to ask; with this condition, that my questions must be confined within the compass of the times they lived in.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I could not recover myself in some time, till the governor assured me, that I should receive no hurt: and observing my two companions to be under no concern, who had been often entertained in the same manner, I began to take courage, and related to his highness a short history of my several adventures; yet not without some hesitation, and frequently looking behind me to the place where I had seen those domestic spectres.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
When we arrived at the island, which was about eleven in the morning, one of the gentlemen who accompanied me went to the governor, and desired admittance for a stranger, who came on purpose to have the honour of attending on his highness.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
My two friends and I lay at a private house in the town adjoining, which is the capital of this little island; and the next morning we returned to pay our duty to the governor, as he was pleased to command us.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
He is usually governed by a decayed wench, or favourite footman, who are the tunnels through which all graces are conveyed, and may properly be called, in the last resort, the governors of the kingdom.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The two gentlemen, who conducted me to the island, were pressed by their private affairs to return in three days, which I employed in seeing some of the modern dead, who had made the greatest figure, for two or three hundred years past, in our own and other countries of Europe; and having been always a great admirer of old illustrious families, I desired the governor would call up a dozen or two of kings, with their ancestors in order for eight or nine generations.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
