Power

Part of speech: noun (n.)

Same as Poor, the fish.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. Ability to act, regarded as latent or inherent; the faculty of doing or performing something; capacity for action or performance; capability of producing an effect, whether physical or moral: potency; might; as, a man of great power; the power of capillary attraction; money gives power. "One next himself in power, and next in crime." Milton.

2. Ability, regarded as put forth or exerted; strength, force, or energy in action; as, the power of steam in moving an engine; the power of truth, or of argument, in producing conviction; the power of enthusiasm. "The power of fancy." Shak.

3. Capacity of undergoing or suffering; fitness to be acted upon; susceptibility; -- called also passive power; as, great power of endurance. Power, then, is active and passive; faculty is active power or capacity; capacity is passive power. Sir W. Hamilton.

4. The exercise of a faculty; the employment of strength; the exercise of any kind of control; influence; dominion; sway; command; government. Power is no blessing in itself but when it is employed to protect the innocent. Swift.

5. The agent exercising an ability to act; an individual invested with authority; an institution, or government, which exercises control; as, the great powers of Europe; hence, often, a superhuman agent; a spirit; a divinity. "The powers of darkness." Milton. And the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. Matt. xxiv. 29.

6. A military or naval force; an army or navy; a great host. Spenser. Never such a power . . . Was levied in the body of a land. Shak.

7. A large quantity; a great number; as, a power o. [Colloq.] Richardson.

8. The rate at which mechanical energy is exerted or mechanical work performed, as by an engine or other machine, or an animal, working continuously; as, an engine of twenty horse power.

9. A mechanical agent; that from which useful mechanical energy is derived; as, water power; steam power; hand power, etc.

10. Applied force; force producing motion or pressure; as, the power applied at one and of a lever to lift a weight at the other end.

11. A machine acted upon by an animal, and serving as a motor to drive other machinery; as, a dog power.

12. The product arising from the multiplication of a number into itself; as, a square is the second power, and a cube is third power, of a number.

13. Mental or moral ability to act; one of the faculties which are possessed by the mind or soul; as, the power of thinking, reasoning, judging, willing, fearing, hoping, etc. I. Watts. The guiltiness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my powers, drove the grossness . . . into a received belief. Shak.

14. The degree to which a lens, mirror, or any optical instrument, magnifies; in the telescope, and usually in the microscope, the number of times it multiplies, or augments, the apparent diameter of an object; sometimes, in microscopes, the number of times it multiplies the apparent surface.

15. An authority enabling a person to dispose of an interest vested either in himself or in another person; ownership by appointment. Wharton.

16. Hence, vested authority to act in a given case; as, the business was referred to a committee with power.