to rule over by right of authority: to govern a nation.
2.
to exercise a directing or restraining influence over; guide: the motives governing a decision.
3.
to hold in check; control: to govern one's temper.
4.
to serve as or constitute a law for: the principles governing a case.
5.
Grammar. to be regularly accompanied by or require the use of (a particular form). In They helped us, the verbhelped governs the objective case of the pronoun we.
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
c.1300, from O.Fr. governer "govern," from L. gubernare "to direct, rule, guide," originally "to steer," from Gk. kybernan "to steer or pilot a ship, direct" (the root of cybernetics). The -k- to -g- sound shift is perhaps via the medium of Etruscan.