regulator
(ˈrɛgjʊleɪtə(r))
[agent-n. f. L. rēgulāre to regulate; cf. F. régulateur, It. regolatore.]
1. a. One who regulates.
| 1655 R. Gardiner Eng. Griev. Discov. To Rdr. A iv, Such judges as may be appointed Regulators of the great abuses done thereunto. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. 383 He did not only assert God to be the Cause of Motion, but also the Governour, Regulator and Methodizer of the same. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. 158 Such a spirit..sets all the wheels of government in motion, which under a wise regulator, may be directed to any beneficial purpose. 1846 Ellis Elgin Marb. I. 179 The directors or regulators of the procession. 1875 Helps Soc. Press. iii. 43 There is great need that the regulator of the machine should be a living, active, forcible creature. |
b. Eng. Hist. A member of a commission appointed in 1687 to investigate and revise the constitution of various boroughs, for the purpose of influencing the election of members of parliament.
| 1688 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 460 The regulators are draweing into the several countries to manage the elections. 1690 J. Harrington Def. Rights Univ. of Oxford ii. 53 Some of them have been ready in surrendering their Charters, and have since been forward Regulators. a 1734 North Lives (1826) II. 16 There was an itinerant crew of the worst of men... These were termed regulators. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. xiv. (1876) III. 74 New modelling corporations through commissions granted to regulators. 1861 Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. xvi. 248 Regulators of Corporations were commissioned to examine all their titles and all their acts. |
c. U.S. A member of one of the bands formed at various times in wild parts of the country, with the professed object of supplying the want of the regular administration of justice. The earliest and most notable case was in the Carolinas, c 1767–71.
| 1767 Ld. Montagu in A. Gregg Hist. Old Cheraws (1867) 136 Those licentious spirits that have so lately appeared in the distant parts of the Province, and, assuming the name of Regulators, have..illegally tried, condemned, and punished many persons. 1768 Boston Chron. 18–25 July 292/2 We daily hear of new irregularities committed by the people called regulators. 1771 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 123/2 A letter from..North Carolina..says, ‘Our Governor, at the head of 2500 men, is going against the Regulators’. 1812 H. Williams Hist. N. Carolina II. 128 The insurgents in North Carolina, who called themselves Regulators, lest they should be called a mob, were in general of the poorest class of citizens. 1824 W. N. Blans Excursion U.S. & Canada 234 On such occasions..all the quiet and industrious men of a district form themselves into companies, under the name of ‘Regulators’. 1847 Harbinger (U.S.) 7 Aug. 136/1 The lynchers, or ‘regulators’ as they are often called, soon find that their foes organize also. |
2. techn. a. A device for controlling machinery in motion, or for regulating the passage of air, electricity, gas, steam, water, etc.
| 1702 Savery Miner's Friend 15 The Handle of the Regulator Z must be thrust from you. 1766 Compl. Farmer s.v. Ventilator, There is an iron regulator..fixed upright to the end..of the box. 1778 W. H. Marshall Minutes Agric. 6 Apr. an. 1775, The drill does its work well..but the Regulators do not yet please me. 1819 Rees Cycl. XXIII. s.v. Mill-work, For such cases, judicious mechanics have adopted contrivances, or regulators... These regulators are usually termed governors. 1838 N. Wood Railroads 339 The regulator, for increasing or diminishing the supply of steam to the boiler. 1880 J. Lomas Alkali Trade 312 Preceding this decomposer comes the ‘regulator’, a brick and iron tower packed with bricks, up which the gases are passed. |
b. A device for adjusting the balance of a clock or watch, in order to regulate its speed.
| 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Regulator, a small spring belonging to the Ballance in the new Pocket-Watches. 1793 Holcroft tr. Lavater's Physiogn. xxxi. 165 Foolish people are like excellent watches which would go well, were the regulator but rectified. 1822 J. Imison Sc. & Art I. 91 To this balance is fixed a small steel spiral spring, which regulates its motion, and keeps it equable; whence it has its name of regulator. |
3. A clock or watch keeping accurate time, by which other timepieces may be regulated.
| 1758 Cleghorn in Phil. Trans. LI. 258 Mr. Garret keeps his clock very exact, by Glasgow's regulator, Christ-Church. 1804 Europ. Mag. XLV. 251/1 Every person to whom minute mechanical accuracy was a matter of importance, was happy to obtain one of these regulators. 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib. II. xiii. 15 A time-keeper, usually termed a regulator..; it has apparatus for transmitting alternate reverse currents of electricity. |
4. Something which regulates; a regulating principle or power.
| 1766 Compl. Farmer s.v. Sheep, The best regulator for this work..would be the state of vegetation. 1796 Jeffrey Let. in Cockburn Life (1852) II. 27 You can have no better regulator than your own successive opinions. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xx. IV. 437 The weakest Ministry has great power as a regulator of parliamentary proceedings. 1884 H. A. Taine in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 518 The State stands..as regulator and controller..of private possessions. |
b. Econ. A change in the rate of taxation which the Chancellor of the Exchequer may use to manipulate the economy between budgets; the power to operate such an alteration.
| 1961 Daily Tel. 18 Apr. 24/6 (heading) Economy ‘regulators’. Changes without budget. Ibid., This is the power he is taking to operate two new ‘regulators’ of the economy at any moment the Government thinks fit. Ibid. 7 July 1/8 Labour spokesmen maintained their objection to the Bill mainly on the grounds that excessive ‘regulator’ powers were left in the hands of the Government. 1968 Times 29 Nov. p. iv/4 The activation of the 10 per cent regulator has effectively doubled the tax..since the spring. 1976 Daily Tel. 1 Nov. 16 Full use of the regulator by itself would raise an extra {pstlg}1,100 million of revenue in a full year and add 21/4 p.c. to prices. The regulator currently permits value added tax to be raised by a quarter and specific duties such as those on drink, tobacco and petrol by a tenth between Budgets. |
5. Comb., as regulator box, regulator cock, regulator spindle, regulator valve; also regulator-wise adv.; regulator gene Genetics [tr. F. régulateur (Jacob & Monod 1959, in Compt. Rend. CCXLIX. 1282)], a gene which codes for a polypeptide which can act as an operator to modify the frequency of initiation of transcription, so as to inhibit or stimulate the synthesis of mRNA (and hence of enzyme) on the structural genes of the operon.
| 1856 E. Cresy Encycl. Civ. Eng. ii. xxi. 1274 The Regulator Box..was first constructed by Mr. Watt. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1915/1 The regulator-cock admits oil or tallow for lubricating the faces of the regulator. 1961 Jacob & Monod in Jrnl. Molecular Biol. III. 334 A new type of gene, which we shall call a ‘regulator gene’... A regulator gene does not contribute structural information to the proteins which it controls. The specific product of a regulator gene is a cytoplasmic substance, which inhibits information transfer from a structural gene (or genes) to protein. In contrast to the classical structural gene, a regulator gene may control the synthesis of several different proteins: the one-gene one-protein rule does not apply to it. 1969 A. M. Campbell Episomes ix. 117 The regulator gene product has since been isolated. 1975 J. B. Jenkins Genetics xii. 527 There is some evidence for regulator genes and repressor substances in higher organisms, although their mode of operation appears to be quite different from those discussed under the operon concept. 1840 Airy in Mem. R. Astron. Soc. XI. 252 The inequalities of motion of the regulator spindle. 1850 Ogilvie s.v., Regulator valve. 1663 Marquis of Worcester Water-Comm. Engine 15 A Primum Mobile, commanding both Height and Quantity Regulator-wise. |
Hence ˈregulatorship.
| 1837 Fraser's Mag. XV. 732 The regulatorship of reason is indispensable. 1899 Daily News 28 Sept. 6/3, I am giving up my regulatorship of priestly orders to my son. |