governor

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A person who governs, especially:
2. n. The chief executive of a state in the United States.
3. n. An official appointed to govern a colony or territory.
4. n. A member of a governing body.
5. n. The manager or administrative head of an organization, business, or institution.
6. n. A military commandant.
7. n. Chiefly British Used as a form of polite address for a man.
8. n. A feedback device on a machine or engine that is used to provide automatic control, as of speed, pressure, or temperature.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A steersman; a pilot.
2. n. The person invested with the supreme executive power in a state or community; specifically, as a personal title, the chief magistrate of a state or province: as, the governor of Connecticut; the governor of Newfoundland. As a title, abbreviated Gov.
3. n. One who is charged with the direction or control of an undertaking or institution: as, the governors of the Bank of England; the governor of a prison or hospital.
4. n. A tutor; one who has the care of a young man; one who instructs a pupil and forms his manners. Compare governess, 2.
5. n. A father; a master or superior; an employer; an elderly person.
6. n. In machinery, a self-acting regulator which controls a supply of steam, gas, or water; especially, any device for automatically regulating the amount of power developed in a machine, as in a steamengine. Governors are made in a variety of forms and with different methods of action. A form of governor for the steam-engine which illustrates well the general function of such devices is shown in the annexed figure. It represents a spindle kept in motion by the engine. A and B are two centrifugal balls, C A and C B the rods which suspend the balls, crossing each other and passing through the spindleat C, where the whole is connected by a round pin put through the spindle and the rods, and serving as the point of suspension for the centrifugal balls or revolving pendulums. A piece of brass, M, is fitted to slide up and down upon the upper part of the spindle, and to this piece the end of the lever N O, whose fulcrum is at P, is attached. This piece of brass is also connected with the ball-rods by two short pieces and joints, D E, F G. When the engine goes too fast, the balls fly further asunder and depress the end N of the lever, which partly shuts a throttle-valve connected with the end O, and thus diminishes the quantity of steam admitted into the cylinder; and on the other hand, when the engine goes too slowly, the balls fall down toward the spindle and elevate the end N of the lever, which opens the throttle-valve wider, and increases the quantity of steam admitted into the cylinder, thus causing it to be proportioned to the resistance of the engine, and keeping the variation of velocity within narrow limits. A similar contrivance is employed in mills to equalize the motion of the machinery. When any part of the machinery is suddenly started or checked, and the moving power remains the same, an alteration in the velocity of the mill will take place, which alteration the governor serves to limit. See gas-governor.
7. n. See the adjectives.
8. n. The regulator used in arc-lamps to control the current. See regulator.

Wiktionary

1. n. The leader of a region or state that is a member of a federation or an empire. In Rome, they were endorsed by the emperor and appointed by the Senate. In the modern United States, they are elected by the people of that state.
2. n. A device which regulates or controls some action of a machine through automatic feedback.
3. n. A member of a decision-making for an organization or entity (including some public agencies) similar to or equivalent to a board of directors (used especially for banks); a member of the board of governors.
4. n. informal father.
5. n. informal Boss, employer.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One who governs; especially, one who is invested with the supreme executive authority in a State; a chief ruler or magistrate.
2. n. One who has the care or guardianship of a young man; a tutor; a guardian.
3. n. (Naut.), rare A pilot; a steersman.
4. n. (Mach.) A contrivance applied to steam engines, water wheels, and other machinery, to maintain nearly uniform speed when the resistances and motive force are variable.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the head of a state government
2. n. a control that maintains a steady speed in a machine (as by controlling the supply of fuel)