rule
UK /ɹuːl/ · US /ɹul/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms rules ruling ruled rulest ruledst ruleth
- noun A regulation, law, guideline. “All participants must adhere to the rules.”
- noun A regulating principle.
- noun (uncountable) The act of ruling; administration of law; government; empire; authority; control.
- noun A normal condition or state of affairs. “My rule is to rise at six o'clock.”
- noun (obsolete) Conduct; behaviour.
- noun (law) An order regulating the practice of the courts, or an order made between parties to an action or a suit.
- noun (mathematics) A determinate method prescribed for performing any operation and producing a certain result.
- noun A ruler; device for measuring, a straightedge, a measure.
- verb (transitive, stative) To regulate, be in charge of, make decisions for, reign over.
- verb (slang, intransitive, stative) To excel. “This game rules!”
- verb (intransitive) To decide judicially.
- verb (transitive) To establish or settle by, or as by, a rule; to fix by universal or general consent, or by common practice.
- verb (transitive) To mark (paper or the like) with rules (lines).
- noun (obsolete) Revelry.
- verb (obsolete, intransitive) To revel.
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Carroll County, Arkansas, United States.
- proper noun A town in Haskell County, Texas, United States.
Synonyms
sanction r. rock bang devour eat eat and leave no crumbs excel go hard kick kick ass shine slap slay hold regulation convention normal pattern formula prescript linguistic rule principle dominion ruler govern decree predominate dominate reign
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English reule, rewle, rule, borrowed from Old French riule, reule, from Latin regula (“straight stick, bar, ruler, pattern”), from regō (“to keep straight, direct, govern, rule”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti (“to straighten; right”), from the root *h₃reǵ-; see regent. Doublet of rail, regal, regula, and rigol.
From Middle English reulen, rulen, borrowed from Old French riuler, from Latin regulāre (“to regulate, rule”), from regula (“a rule”); see regular and regulate.
Related to revel.
Webster’s 1913
- noun That which is prescribed or laid down as a guide for conduct or action; a governing direction for a specific purpose; an authoritative enactment; a regulation; a prescription; a precept; as, the rules of various societies; the rules governing a school; a rule of etiquette or propriety; the rules of cricket.
- noun Hence: (a) Uniform or established course of things.
- verb To control the will and actions of; to exercise authority or dominion over; to govern; to manage. Chaucer.
- verb To control or direct by influence, counsel, or persuasion; to guide; --used chiefly in the passive.
Etymology [OE. reule, riule, OF. riule, reule, F. régle, fr. L. regula a ruler, rule, model, fr. regere, rectum, to lead straight, to direct. See Right, a., and cf. Regular.]
Etymology [Cf. OF. riuler, ruiler, L. regulare. See Rule, n., and cf. Regulate.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “rule”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details