Definition of power

• n. - Same as Poor, the fish.
• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - Capacity of undergoing or suffering; fitness to be acted upon; susceptibility; -- called also passive power; as, great power of endurance.
• n. - The exercise of a faculty; the employment of strength; the exercise of any kind of control; influence; dominion; sway; command; government.
• n. - 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.
• n. - A military or naval force; an army or navy; a great host.
• n. - A large quantity; a great number; as, a power o/ good things.
• n. - 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.
• n. - A mechanical agent; that from which useful mechanical energy is derived; as, water power; steam power; hand power, etc.
• n. - 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.
• n. - A machine acted upon by an animal, and serving as a motor to drive other machinery; as, a dog power.
• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - An authority enabling a person to dispose of an interest vested either in himself or in another person; ownership by appointment.
• n. - Hence, vested authority to act in a given case; as, the business was referred to a committee with power.