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Perspective

regulate

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin regulatus, perfect passive participle of regulō (“to direct, rule, regulate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from regula (“rule”), from regō (“to keep straight, direct, govern, rule”). Compare regle, rail. Displaced native Old English metegian.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɹɛɡjəleɪt/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: re‧gu‧late

Verb

regulate (third-person singular simple present regulates, present participle regulating, simple past and past participle regulated)

  1. To dictate policy.
  2. To control or direct according to rule, principle, or law.
    • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
      the laws which regulate the succession of the seasons
    • 1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC:
      The herdsmen near the frontier adjudicated their own disputes, and regulated their own police.
    • 2023 May 16, Cecilia Kang, “OpenAI’s Sam Altman Urges A.I. Regulation in Senate Hearing”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, archived from the original on 16 May 2023:
      But on Tuesday, Sam Altman […] testified before members of a Senate subcommittee and largely agreed with them on the need to regulate the increasingly powerful A.I. technology being created inside his company and others like Google and Microsoft.
    • 2025 March 26, Hannah Rabinowitz, “DOJ considers abandoning the defense of federal restrictions on gun silencers”, in CNN‎:
      The NFA has been a flashpoint for advocates, who say that silencers are not frequently used in crime and believe that the silencers and other weapons regulated under the law, including machine guns and short-barreled rifles and shotguns, are protected by the Second Amendment.
  3. To adjust (a mechanism) for accurate and proper functioning.
    to regulate a watch, i.e. adjust its rate of running so that it will keep approximately standard time
    to regulate the temperature of a room, the pressure of steam, the speed of a machine, etc.
  4. To put or maintain in order.
    to regulate the disordered state of a nation or its finances
    to regulate one's eating habits

Derived terms

Translations

control

Further reading

Anagrams

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Latin

Verb

rēgulāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of rēgulō

Spanish

Verb

regulate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of regular combined with te

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