Definition of "govern" []

• To make and administer the public policy and affairs of; exercise sovereign authority in. (verb-transitive)
• To control the speed or magnitude of; regulate: a valve that governs fuel intake. (verb-transitive)
• To control the actions or behavior of: Govern yourselves like civilized people. (verb-transitive)
• To keep under control; restrain: a student who could not govern his impulses. (verb-transitive)
• To exercise a deciding or determining influence on: Chance usually governs the outcome of the game. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Here is the authority, from God himself, to hold men and women, and their increase, in slavery, and to transmit them as property forever; here is plenary power to govern them, whatever measure of severity it may require; provided only, that _to govern_, be the object in exercising it."
• "A wise person once said that "to govern is to choose.""
• "The remedy: govern from the center, try even harder to be bi-partisan, and stop criticizing Wall Street and bring some CEOs onto the White House team."