power

Etymology

From Middle English power, poer, from Old French poeir, from Vulgar Latin potēre, from Latin posse, whence English potent. Compare Modern French pouvoir. Displaced the native Old English anweald.

noun

1. The ability to do or undergo something.
   If it is spirits who have power to suffer, it seems they would also have active powers to think and will. 2018, Marilyn McCord Adams, Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God, page 74
2. (social) The ability to coerce, influence, or control.
   1. (countable) The ability to affect or influence.
      […] 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).
      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. 2013-08-10, “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.
      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. November 17, 1978, 1:30:50 from the start, in The Star Wars Holiday Special (Science Fiction), spoken by Carrie Fisher, →OCLC
   4. (metonymically) An influential nation, company, or other such body.
      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. 2013-08-16, 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.
3. (physical, uncountable) Effectiveness.
   1. Physical force or strength.
      He needed a lot of power to hit the ball out of the stadium.
   2. Electricity or a supply of electricity.
      After the pylons collapsed, this town was without power for a few days.
      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. 2013-07-20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
   3. A measure of the rate of doing work or transferring energy.
   4. The strength by which a lens or mirror magnifies an optical image.
      We need a microscope with higher power.
4. (colloquial, dated) A large amount or number.
   Don't you mind my snuffling a little—becuz we're in a power of trouble. 1872, Mark Twain, Roughing It
5. 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).
   the mechanical powers
6. (trucking) A tractor.
   The set I'm making right now needs a power on it, but we don't have any tractors left in the yard.
7. (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.
8. (mathematics)
   1. A product of equal factors (and generalizations of this notion): xⁿ, 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.
   2. (set theory) Cardinality.
   3. (statistics) The probability that a statistical test will reject the null hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true.
9. (biblical, in the plural) In Christian angelology, an intermediate level of angels, ranked above archangels, but exact position varies by classification scheme.

verb

1. (transitive) To provide power for (a mechanical or electronic device).
   This CD player is powered by batteries.
2. (transitive) To hit or kick something forcefully.
   United keeper Edwin van der Sar was the unlikely provider as his clearance found Rooney, who had got ahead of last defender Richard Dunne, and the forward brilliantly controlled a ball coming from over his shoulder before powering a shot past Brad Friedel. February 1, 2011, Mandeep Sanghera, “Man Utd 3 - 1 Aston Villa”, in BBC
3. To enable or provide the impetus for.
   Abdul Sattar Edhi came to Karachi as a poor man from an Indian village in 1947. Starting with a small pharmacy tent, his work rapidly expanded, powered by donations from ordinary citizens. April 6, 2017, Samira Shackle, “On the frontline with Karachi’s ambulance drivers”, in the Guardian

adj

1. (Singapore, colloquial) Impressive.
   Check out the POWER Mee Rebus & Lontong in this newly established Nasi Padang coffee shop at Market Street Carpark. 2001, Thian, Makan Time
   Their performance is very the Power! 2005, Bayya, Bayya Eats ... and Other Stuff
   His hokkien is damn power lah! 2010, Caihong Lim, Kesheng Lim, Footprints All Over: Love, Happiness,Joy
   Eh his soccer skills damn power one. 2015, SGMOJI, Your Ultimate Guide to Locally-Grown Emojis, archived from the original on 2016-03-04