Definition of "power"

The ability to do or undergo something.  quotations  examples

(social) The ability to coerce, influence, or control.  quotations

1. (countable) The ability to affect or influence.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • An incident which happened about this time will set the characters of these two lads more fairly before the discerning reader than is in the power of the longest dissertation.

     1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], book ii

   • Thwackum, on the contrary, maintained that the human mind, since the fall, was nothing but a sink of iniquity, till purified and redeemed by grace. […] The favourite phrase of the former, was the natural beauty of virtue; that of the latter, was the divine power of grace.

     1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], book iii

   • “ […] That woman is stark mad, Lord Stranleigh. Her own father recognised it when he bereft her of all power in the great business he founded. […]”

     1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎

   • Past and future obviously have no reality of their own. Just as the moon has no light of its own, but can only reflect the light of the sun, so are past and future only pale reflections of the light, power, and reality of the eternal present.

     1998, Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

2. Control or coercion, particularly legal or political (jurisdiction).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. [...] We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

     1949, George Orwell [pseudonym; George Orwell], Nineteen Eighty-Four

   • In the face of expanding federal power, California in particular struggled to maintain control over its Chinese population.

     2005 April, Columbia Law Review

   • It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.

     2013 August 10, “Can China clean up fast enough?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848

3. (metonymically, chiefly in the plural) The people in charge of legal or political power, the government.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • No matter how different we appear, we're all the same in our struggle against the powers of evil and darkness. I hope that this day will always be a day of joy in which we can reconfirm our dedication and our courage and more than anything else, our love for one another. This is the promise of the Tree of Life.

     1978 November 17, 1:30:50 from the start, in The Star Wars Holiday Special‎ (Science Fiction), spoken by Carrie Fisher

4. (metonymically) An influential nation, company, or other such body.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Most of the Himalayan rivers have been relatively untouched by dams near their sources. Now the two great Asian powers, India and China, are rushing to harness them as they cut through some of the world's deepest valleys.

     2013 August 16, John Vidal, “Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 10, page 8

5. (metonymically, archaic) An army, a military force.  quotations

   Quotations

   • The threatning words of duke Robert comming at the last to king Henries eares, caused him foorthwith to conceiue verie sore displeasure against the duke, in so much that he sent ouer a power of men into Normandie, which finding no great resistance, did much hurt in the countrie, by fetching and carieng spoiles and preies.

     1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison

   • Then when our powers in points of ſwords are ioin’dAnd cloſde in compaſſe of the killing bullet,Though ſtraite the paſſage and the port be made,That leads to Pallace of my brothers life,Proud is his fortune if we pierce it not.

     c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, (please specify the page)

(physical, uncountable) Effectiveness.

1. Physical force or strength.  examples

2. Electricity or a supply of electricity.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • “My father had ideas about conservation long before the United States took it up. […] You preserve water in times of flood and freshet to be used for power or for irrigation throughout the year. […]”

     1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎

   • [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.

     2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

3. A measure of the rate of doing work or transferring energy.  examples

4. The strength by which a lens or mirror magnifies an optical image.  examples

(colloquial, dated) A large amount or number.  quotations  examples

Any of the elementary forms or parts of machines: three primary (the lever, inclined plane, and pulley) and three secondary (the wheel-and-axle, wedge, and screw).  examples

(trucking) A tractor.  examples

(physics, mechanics) A measure of the effectiveness that a force producing a physical effect has over time. If linear, the quotient of: (force multiplied by the displacement of or in an object) ÷ time. If rotational, the quotient of: (force multiplied by the angle of displacement) ÷ time.  examples

(mathematics)

1. A product of equal factors (and generalizations of this notion): x n , read as " x to the power of n " or the like, is called a power and denotes the product x × x × ⋯ × x , where x appears n times in the product; x is called the base and n the exponent.  examples

2. (set theory) Cardinality.  examples

3. (statistics) The probability that a statistical test will reject the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true.  examples

(biblical, in the plural) In Christian angelology, an intermediate level of angels, ranked above archangels, but exact position varies by classification scheme.  examples

(transitive) To provide power for (a mechanical or electronic device).  examples

(transitive) To hit or kick something forcefully.  quotations  examples

To enable or provide the impetus for.  quotations  examples

(Singapore, colloquial) Impressive.  quotations  examples