regulatorn.
/ˈrɛɡjᵿleɪtə/, U.S. /ˈrɛɡjəˌleɪdər/ 1.
a. A person who or thing which regulates or controls.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > control > [noun] > regulation > principle or power for
regulator1648
regulater1650
society > authority > control > person in control > [noun] > regulator
rightereOE
regulator1648
1648 M. Nedham Loyalty speakes Truth 3 What Peace can wee expect, so longs as Covetousnesse it selfe must be for the most part the Regulator of all things.
1652 S. Duncon Severall Propositions (title page) A letter of great concernment, directed to Mr. Hugh Peters, one of the regulators of the law.
1665 R. Hooke Micrographia 122 This little Vegetable..by reason of its regulators, moves and acts after quite another manner.
1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe 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 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. 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.
1796 Jeffrey Let. in Cockburn Life (1852) II. 27 You can have no better regulator than your own successive opinions.
1833 H. Ellis Elgin Marbles I. ix. 179 The directors or regulators of the procession.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. xx. 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.
1913 R. M. La Follette Autobiogr. 103 Domestic competition did not prove the strong regulator of commerce that the early protectionists believed it would.
1921 tr. L. Trotsky Def. Terrorism 155 Abramovich apparently would like us, as regulators of the distribution of labour power, to make use only of such necessary workers to our most important factories.
1945 Philos. & Phenomenol. Res. 5 607 Law is to be regarded as wholly relative to human interests and hence in no sense as the regulator of these interests.
2002 Science 25 Oct. 701 This pathway is a critical regulator of life-span and reproduction in many organisms.
b. Politics and Business. An official or agency responsible for the control and supervision of a particular industry, business activity, area of public interest, etc.
ΚΠ
1959 Jrnl. Insurance 26 53/2 Insurance companies are monopolistic and have achieved such a degree of power that state regulators are unable to control and effectively regulate their operations.
1968 Times 11 June p. iv/2 A major subject of discussion between the exchange and government regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission is brokerage commissions.
1983 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 30 Jan. 1 In the past, state regulators usually allowed local distributors to pass on to users any price increases approved by the Federal Government.
1993 Times 25 May He called for international regulators and prosecutors to be given ready access to all transactions.
2006 I. Byatt et al. in M. A. Crew & D. Parker Handbk. Econ. Regulation xvii. 379 Conduct is regulated by the economic regulator, OFWAT, and two quality regulators, the Drinking Water Inspectorate..and the Environment Agency.
2.
a. A device for controlling the rate or speed of a machine or mechanism, or for controlling the flow of gas, electricity, water, etc. Cf. governor n. 8.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > parts of machines > control(s) > [noun]
regulator1661
controller1836
control1900
1661 T. Salusbury Math. Coll. & Transl. ii. 50 To measure what water passeth through the Regulator in a time given.
1702 T. Savery Miner's Friend 15 The Handle of the Regulator Z must be thrust from you.
1775 W. Marshall Minutes Agric. 6 Apr. (1778) The drill does its work well..but the Regulators do not yet please me.
1838 N. Wood Pract. Treat. Railroads 339 The regulator, for increasing or diminishing the supply of steam to the boiler.
1880 J. Lomas Man. Alkali Trade 312 Preceding this decomposer comes the ‘regulator’, a brick and iron tower packed with bricks, up which the gases are passed.
1922 C. L. Dawes Course Electr. Engin. vi. 161 The underlying principle of the regulator is the same whether used for alternating or for direct current.
1950 Pop. Sci. Apr. 237/1 Does the regulator regulate? If not, lift off the turntable and take a look at the linkage to the brake lever.
2007 Dive Oct. 38/1 Having seen the price tag of this regulator, I was keen to test it... Could a valve with a price tag this low really be any good?
b. A pendulum, spring, or other device for controlling the speed of a clock or watch so that it accurately keeps time. Now frequently historical.
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the world > time > instruments for measuring time > clock > [noun] > part(s) of
nut1428
peise1428
plumbc1450
Jack1498
clockwork1516
larum1542
Jack of the clockhouse1563
watch-wheel1568
work1570
plummeta1578
Jack of the clock1581
snail-cam1591
snail-work1591
pointer1596
quarter jack1604
mainspring1605
winder1606
notch-wheel1611
fusee1622
count-wheel1647
jack-wheel1647
frame1658
arbor1659
balance1660
fuse1674
hour-figure1675
stop1675
pallet1676
regulator1676
cock1678
movement1678
detent1688
savage1690
clock1696
pinwheel1696
starred wheel1696
swing-wheel1696
warning-wheel1696
watch1696
watch-part1696
hoop-wheel1704
hour-wheel1704
snail1714
step-wheel1714
tide-work1739
train1751
crutch1753
cannon pinion1764
rising board1769
remontoire1774
escapement1779
clock jack1784
locking plate1786
scapement1789
motion work1795
anchor escapement1798
scape1798
star-wheel1798
recoil escapement1800
recoiling pallet1801
recoiling scapement1801
cannon1802
hammer-tail1805
recoiling escapement1805
bottle jack1810
renovating spring1812
quarter-boy1815
pin tooth1817
solar wheel1819
impulse-teeth1825
pendulum wheel1825
pallet arbor1826
rewinder1826
rack hook1829
snail-wheel1831
quarter bell1832
tow1834
star pulley1836
watch train1838
clock train1843
raising-piece1843
wheelwork1843
gravity escapement1850
jumper1850
vertical escapement1850
time train1853
pin pallet1860
spade1862
dead well1867
stop-work1869
ringer1873
strike-or-silent1875
warning-piece1875
guard-pin1879
pendulum cock1881
warning-lever1881
beat-pin1883
fusee-piece1884
fusee-snail1884
shutter1884
tourbillion1884
tumbler1884
virgule1884
foliot1899
grasshopper1899
grasshopper escapement1899
trunk1899
pin lever1908
clock spring1933
[1658 [see regulater n.]. ]
1676 E. Coles Eng. Dict. Pendulum, a regulator, exactly proportioning the time in watches, &c.
1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I Regulator, a small spring belonging to the Ballance in the new Pocket-Watches.
1793 T. Holcroft tr. J. C. Lavater Ess. Physiognomy (abridged ed.) xxxi. 165 Foolish people are like excellent watches which would go well, were the regulator but rectified.
1835 J. Abbott Princ. Hydraul. Engine 128 Regulator, a small lever in watch work, which, by being moved, increases or decreases the amount of the balance spring that is allowed to act.
1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockmakers' Handbk. (new ed.) 241 Silver Bar, [or] Silver Piece, the graduated arc at the extremity of a watch regulator when it is made of silver.
1911 Herald Gospel Liberty 14 Sept. 1169/3 The watch has a regulator to correct it if wrong.
2003 R. Racevskis Time & Ways of Knowing under Louis XIV 13 He [sc. Huygens] successfully applied Galileo Galilei's..invention of the pendulum as a regulator to a clock mechanism in 1657.
c. A pendulum clock or other clock which accurately keeps time, typically used to set other timepieces correctly or to time astronomical observations. Now chiefly historical.
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the world > time > instruments for measuring time > clock > [noun] > other types of clock
watch-clock1592
German clock1598
quarter clocka1631
wheel-clock1671
table clocka1684
month clock1712
astronomical clock1719
musical clock1721
repeater1725
Tompion1727
pulling clock1733
regulator1735
eight-day clock1741
regulator clock1750
French clock1757
repetition clock1765
day clock1766
striker1778
chiming clock1789
cuckoo-clock1789
night clock1823
telltale1827
carriage clock1828
fly-clock1830
steeple clock1830
telltale clock1832
skeleton clock1842
telegraph clock1842
star clock1850
weight-clock1850
prison clock1853
crystal clock1854
pillar scroll top clock1860
sheep's-head clock1872
presentation clock1875
pillar clock1880
stop-clock1881
Waterbury1882
calendar-clock1884
ting-tang clock1884
birdcage clock1886
sheep's head1887
perpetual calendar1892
bracket clock1894
Act of Parliament clock1899
cartel clock1899
banjo-clock1903
master clock1904
lantern clock1913
time clock1919
evolutionary clock1922
lancet clock1922
atomic clock1927
quartz clock1934
clock radio1946
real-time clock1953
organ clock1956
molecular clock1974
travelling clock2014
1735 C. Leadbetter Uranoscopia 133 When I come to enquire..by what they have set their Regulator, one says, he set his by St. Paul's Clock, another by the Royal Exchange-Clock.
1760 G. Cleghorn in Philos. Trans. 1759 (Royal Soc.) 51 258 Mr. Garret keeps his clock very exact, by Glasgow's regulator, Christ-Church.
1804 European Mag. 45 251/1 Every person to whom minute mechanical accuracy was a matter of importance, was happy to obtain one of these regulators.
1893 G. N. Parker Our Cal. 137 In a certain shop where hangs a regulator are two clocks to be regulated.
1916 S. Eaton Amer. College Course ii. vii.197 Just as the ordinary citizen looks to the jeweller's regulator to correct his watch, so the jeweller applies to the astronomer for the correction of his regulator.
2001 E. Danson Drawing Line xvii. 163 Mason had taken receipt of John Shelton's astronomical regulator from the Royal Society.
3. English History. A member of a commission established in 1687 in order to influence the outcome of parliamentary elections by investigating and removing from borough corporations those members found to be unfavourable to the king.
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society > authority > office > appointment to office > choosing or fact of being chosen for office > election of representative body by vote > right to vote at elections > [noun] > constituency > one who revised constitution of boroughs
regulator1688
1688 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) I. 460 The regulators are draweing into the several countries to manage the elections.
1690 Def. Rights & Priviledges Univ. Oxf. ii. 53 Some of them have been ready in surrendering their Charters, and have since been forward Regulators.
1742 R. North & M. North Life F. North 213 There was an itinerant Crew of the worst of Men... These were termed Regulators.
1744 J. Bancks Hist. Life & Reign Wiliam III iv. 159 Regulators were sent down to every Corporation, to model them to this End.
1827 H. Hallam Constit. Hist. Eng. II. xiv. 420 New modelling corporations through commissions granted to regulators.
1861 Ld. Brougham Brit. Constit. (ed. 2) xvi. 248 Regulators of Corporations were commissioned to examine all their titles and all their acts.
1940 Eng. Hist. Rev. 55 49 Regulators, functioning at Winchester in James's interest at about the same time, appear to have been equally ill informed, since they sought a new surrender.
1998 P. D. Halliday Dismembering Body Politic ii. vii. 244 A new committee of the Privy Council began inspecting the regulators' reports and removing all those who would not support repealing the laws against dissenters and Catholics.
4. North American. Frequently with capital initial. A member of any of various extralegal groups operating in parts of the United States in the late 18th and 19th centuries, ostensibly established to combat crime and preserve law and order, but in many cases functioning chiefly as violent vigilantes. Now historical.Most notably applied to a group operating in North Carolina in the late 1760s. Originally organized to protest against tax abuses and official corruption, the movement developed into a popular uprising against the colonial government of the state (cf. Regulator movement n. at Compounds 2).
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society > law > law enforcement > law-enforcement or peace-officer > [noun] > vigilante committee > member of vigilante band or committee
regulator1753
moderator1767
vigilante1856
1753 N.Y. Gaz. 31 Dec. 1/1 These young Persons do stile, or are stiled, Regulators; and so they are with Propriety; for they have regulated my dear Husband, and the rest of the bad Ones hereabouts.
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 [sc. South Carolina], 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.
1772 Ann. Reg. 1771 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. Blane Excurs. through U.S. 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.
1905 W. E. Fitch Some Neglected Hist. N. Carolina ii. 94 The Regulators, a large body of wronged and long-deceived men, embracing every element of society, whipped a few of their oppressors, taking the life of not one.
1988 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 20 Nov. 62/5 They play ‘regulators’ hired to protect a local rancher against the Santa Fe gang, a group of corrupt lawyers and politicians who once controlled the Wild West.
2001 V. E. Bynum Free State Jones 219 Some Regulators did not flee their neighborhoods, at least not immediately, but continued to struggle to bring orderly development to their counties.
5. Genetics. Short for regulator gene n. at Compounds 2.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > genetic activity > genetic components > [noun] > gene > types of gene
sex determinant1902
sex determiner1909
inhibitor1911
multiple factor1912
modifier1915
autosomal dominant1919
autosomal recessive1919
scute1923
gene1925
suppressor1928
rate gene1932
dominigene1938
buffer1939
polygene1941
switch gene1942
mutator1943
oligogene1943
sickle cell gene1946
supergene1949
ob1950
obese1950
regulator1960
regulator gene1960
regulatory gene1960
enhancer1967
oncogene1969
virogene1969
hedgehog1980
1960 Q. Rev. Biol. 35 297/2 The regulator exerts its apparent pleiotropic action at the genetic level by repressing another closely linked gene.
1985 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 312 119 This finding precludes the pair rule gene products being directly involved in the activation of BX-C genes. They could, however, interact with the regulators of these, Pc and Rg-bx.
2005 M. W. Kirschner & J. C. Gerhart Plausibility of Life iv. 119 Certain regulators control the expression of genes encoding other regulators.
6. Economics. A change in the rate of taxation which the Chancellor of the Exchequer may use to manipulate the economy between budgets; (also) the power to make such an alteration.The power to make such an alteration was introduced by the Finance Act 1961.
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society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > impost, due, or tax > tax > taxation > [noun] > change in rate of taxation
regulator1961
1961 Daily Tel. 18 Apr. 24/6 This is the power he is taking to operate two new ‘regulators’ of the economy at any moment the Government thinks fit.
1968 Times 29 Nov. p. iv/4 The activation of the 10 per cent regulator has effectively doubled the tax..since the spring.
1982 Oxf. Econ. Papers 34 71 No machinery or legislative powers, such as the ‘regulator’, existed which would have permitted executive action.
2008 Daily Express (Nexis) 31 May 1 The group is calling for a fuel duty regulator which would involve the Treasury cutting fuel duty to cap pump prices when crude oil surges beyond an agreed price.
Compounds
C1. (In sense 2a.)
regulator cock n.
ΚΠ
1848 J. Sewell in Tredgold's Princ. & Pract. Machinery of Locomotive Engines (1850) I. 68 Regulator-cock, a cock placed to admit oil or tallow to lubricate the faces of the regulator.
1889 Science 29 Mar. 231/2 A regulator-cock for the brake.
1911 F. N. Taylor Man. Civil Engin. Pract. xxxiii. 570 The degree of opening of the regulator cock, and..the rate at which water is passing through the apparatus.
regulator spindle n.
ΚΠ
1840 Airy in Mem. Royal Astron. Soc. XI. 252 The inequalities of motion of the regulator spindle.
1914 Jrnl. Amer. Soc. Naval Engineers 26 209 Mounted on the engine regulator spindle is an interrupted-screw device.
1985 J. Billingsley Robots & Automated Manuf. xi. 141 The inlet and outlet trays have holes through which retain the regulator spindle.
regulator valve n.
ΚΠ
1765 J. Smeaton Reports (1797) I. 226 The regulator valve is shut.
1853 H. Greeley Art & Industry as represented in Exhib. at Crystal Palace N.Y. xxx. 305 Instead of applying it to the usual regulator-valve, in this engine the governor is..made to adjust the ‘cut-off’.
1948 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 48 90/1 The oxygen flow is then turned off at the regulator valve.
2008 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 21 29 July The most likely cause was a failure of a regulator valve on the top of the tank.
C2.
regulator box n. a box-shaped regulator (sense 2a); spec. one which controls the flow of air to an engine, furnace, etc.
ΚΠ
1782 J. Watt Brit. Patent 1321 (1855) 12 Let..a steam pipe..be made to communicate between the perpendicular steam pipe..and the top regulator box.
1832 London Jrnl. Arts & Sci. Conjoined Ser. 1 252 When a greater number of burners are lit up, the pressure of the gas in the regulator box, will of course be reduced.
1912 Pearson's Mag. (Amer. ed.) 27 31 (advt.) The..brass bellows inside the regulator box expands and contracts automatically.
1993 R. Lowe & W. Shaw Travellers 2 He'll wire in a regulator box and a warning light,..hitch it up to a battery and off he can go.
regulator clock n. now historical = sense 2c.
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the world > time > instruments for measuring time > clock > [noun] > other types of clock
watch-clock1592
German clock1598
quarter clocka1631
wheel-clock1671
table clocka1684
month clock1712
astronomical clock1719
musical clock1721
repeater1725
Tompion1727
pulling clock1733
regulator1735
eight-day clock1741
regulator clock1750
French clock1757
repetition clock1765
day clock1766
striker1778
chiming clock1789
cuckoo-clock1789
night clock1823
telltale1827
carriage clock1828
fly-clock1830
steeple clock1830
telltale clock1832
skeleton clock1842
telegraph clock1842
star clock1850
weight-clock1850
prison clock1853
crystal clock1854
pillar scroll top clock1860
sheep's-head clock1872
presentation clock1875
pillar clock1880
stop-clock1881
Waterbury1882
calendar-clock1884
ting-tang clock1884
birdcage clock1886
sheep's head1887
perpetual calendar1892
bracket clock1894
Act of Parliament clock1899
cartel clock1899
banjo-clock1903
master clock1904
lantern clock1913
time clock1919
evolutionary clock1922
lancet clock1922
atomic clock1927
quartz clock1934
clock radio1946
real-time clock1953
organ clock1956
molecular clock1974
travelling clock2014
1750 Philos. Trans. 1748 (Royal Soc.) 45 595 After having adjusted his Clock by the Regulator-Clock of a Watch-maker at Inverness.
1850 E. B. Denison Rudimentary Treat. Clock & Watch Making i. lxxiv. 103 A regulator clock requires so little alteration that the hour hand never has to be meddled with.
1936 Pop. Mech. Aug. 187/2 Perfect time for some fifteen million clocks operating on alternating current is made possible by the telechron frequency regulator clock.
1997 Navy News July 12/3 The regulator clock made by Shelton..[was] taken by Cook on one or more of his voyages.
regulator gene n. [after French gène régulateur (F. Jacob & J. Monod 1959, in Comptes rendus hebd. de l'Acad. des Sci. 249 1282)] Genetics a gene that controls the expression of one or more other genes; esp. one that produces a protein that inhibits the transcription of another gene.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > genetic activity > genetic components > [noun] > gene > types of gene
sex determinant1902
sex determiner1909
inhibitor1911
multiple factor1912
modifier1915
autosomal dominant1919
autosomal recessive1919
scute1923
gene1925
suppressor1928
rate gene1932
dominigene1938
buffer1939
polygene1941
switch gene1942
mutator1943
oligogene1943
sickle cell gene1946
supergene1949
ob1950
obese1950
regulator1960
regulator gene1960
regulatory gene1960
enhancer1967
oncogene1969
virogene1969
hedgehog1980
1960 Q. Rev. Biol. 35 298/2 For each antibody-forming gene there is a regulator gene, which comes into play later or more slowly than the antibody locus.
1961 E. Jacob & J. Monod in Jrnl. Molecular Biol. 3 334 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.
1975 J. B. Jenkins Genetics xii. 527 There is some evidence for regulator genes and repressor substances in higher organisms.
2004 Perspectives on Politics 2 717/1 Regulator genes allow an organism to respond to its environment; they are the genes that turn on and off the transcription of other genes (or themselves).
regulator lamp n. (now rare) an electric lamp which acts as or is controlled by a regulator; spec. an arc lamp in which a regulator is used to maintain the arc.
ΚΠ
1851 Official Descriptive & Illustr. Catal. Great Exhib. IV. 1058/1 Regulator lamp, silvered by the electro-plating process.
1884 F. Krohn tr. G. Glaser de Cew Magneto- & Dynamo-electr. Machines (new ed.) viii. 196 The large generator supplied a regulator lamp of Gramme's construction.
1940 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 175 333 The temperature was maintained constant to within ±3° C..by the use of regulator lamps.
Regulator movement n. American History a popular movement of protest against widespread lawlessness and official corruption in the Carolinas (chiefly North Carolina) in the late 1760s, developing into an uprising against the colonial government (see sense 4).
ΚΠ
1851 B. J. Lossing Pict. Field-bk. Revol. I. xv. 349 It was in schools like..the Regulator movement in the Carolinas, that the people were tutored for the firm resistance which they made to British oppressions.
1910 H. A. Bruce Daniel Boone & Wilderness Road xiii. 130 As the Regulator Movement had demonstrated in the case of the North Carolina system, the oligarchic and the autocratic could not hope to endure in the free air of the border.
2002 N. A. Hamilton Rebels & Renegades ii. 40 The Regulator movement began late in 1767 as an attempt by small farmers to establish order.
regulator protein n. Genetics = regulatory protein n. at regulatory adj. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1964 L. Goldstein in G. H. Bourne Cytol. & Cell Physiol. (ed. 3) x. 625 Shortly after its production, rRNA interacts with a protein (which for convenience we will call ‘regulator protein’) that is specific for the specific rRNA.
1983 Nature Biotechnol. 1 9/3 The regulator protein is presumably affected by the presence of heavy metal ions.
2004 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101 8415/2 Two genes, lacI and λ cI,..encode the transcriptional regulator proteins, LacR and λ CI.
Derivatives
ˈregulatorship n.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > control > person in control > [noun] > regulator > position of
regulatorship1782
1782 H. Scott Adventures Rupee iii. 25 He was above eighty, and had never seen the day since his regulatorship commenced.
1837 Fraser's Mag. 15 732 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.
2004 Africa News (Nexis) 5 Aug. The management..insisted that the Ministry had acted in bad faith and beyond the bounds of legitimate regulatorship.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > agreement, harmony, or congruity > adaptation or adjustment > [adverb] > in the manner of a regulator
regulator-wise1663
1663 Marquis of Worcester Water-comm. Engine 15 A Primum Mobile, commanding both Height and Quantity Regulator-wise.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1648