RULING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ruling mean? 

• RULING (noun)
  The noun RULING has 1 sense:

1. the reason for a court's judgment (as opposed to the decision itself)

  Familiarity information: RULING used as a noun is very rare.

• RULING (adjective)
  The adjective RULING has 1 sense:

1. exercising power or authority

  Familiarity information: RULING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RULING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The reason for a court's judgment (as opposed to the decision itself)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

opinion; ruling

Hypernyms ("ruling" is a kind of...):

judgement; judgment; judicial decision ((law) the determination by a court of competent jurisdiction on matters submitted to it)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ruling"):

fatwa (a ruling on a point of Islamic law that is given by a recognized authority)

Instance hyponyms:

Bakke decision (a ruling by the Supreme Court on affirmative action; the Court ruled in 1978 that medical schools are entitled to consider race as a factor in their admission policy)

Derivation:

rule (decide on and make a declaration about)

• RULING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Exercising power or authority

Synonyms:

regnant; reigning; ruling

Similar:

powerful (having great power or force or potency or effect)

 Context examples 

Or because your third house will be brought into the discussion—a house ruling transportation—you may buy a new car, and you could not wish for a better day to do so.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

His own enjoyment, or his own ease, was, in every particular, his ruling principle.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

"We are not ruling out movement or modification of a previously discovered hot spot, but it is difficult to imagine one could travel such a distance and still be considered the same feature."

(NASA Juno data indicate another possible volcano on Jupiter moon Io, NASA)

I take it, in the first place, that neither of us is prepared to admit diabolical intrusions into the affairs of men. Let us begin by ruling that entirely out of our minds.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now that was tact, for two of the ruling foibles of the masculine mind were touched.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

DR. ILLINGWORTH: 'Your Grace, I have more to say, but I bow to your ruling. I move, then, that, while Professor Summerlee be thanked for his interesting address, the whole matter shall be regarded as 'non-proven,' and shall be referred back to a larger, and possibly more reliable Committee of Investigation.'

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I sit with my eye on Mr. Creakle, blinking at him like a young owl; when sleep overpowers me for a minute, he still looms through my slumber, ruling those ciphering-books, until he softly comes behind me and wakes me to plainer perception of him, with a red ridge across my back.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The researchers say the new test has an 87 percent accuracy rate in identifying someone with stage 1 or 2 pancreatic cancer, and a 98 percent rate in ruling out the disease in those who are not sick.

(New Test May Detect Pancreatic Cancer Early, VOA News)

He had heard, indeed, some curious Houyhnhnms observe, that in most herds there was a sort of ruling Yahoo (as among us there is generally some leading or principal stag in a park), who was always more deformed in body, and mischievous in disposition, than any of the rest; that this leader had usually a favourite as like himself as he could get, whose employment was to lick his master’s feet and posteriors, and drive the female Yahoos to his kennel; for which he was now and then rewarded with a piece of ass’s flesh.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Mars, your ruling planet, is found in Scorpio, your eighth house, increasing your spending.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)