Power

1. Ability to act, regarded as latent or inherent; the faculty of doing or performing something; capacity for action or performance; capability of producing an effect, whether physical or moral: potency; might; as, a man of great power; the power of capillary attraction; money gives power.
2. Ability, regarded as put forth or exerted; strength, force, or energy in action; as, the power of steam in moving an engine; the power of truth, or of argument, in producing conviction; the power of enthusiasm.
3. Capacity of undergoing or suffering; fitness to be acted upon; susceptibility; -- called also passive power; as, great power of endurance.
4. The exercise of a faculty; the employment of strength; the exercise of any kind of control; influence; dominion; sway; command; government.
5. The agent exercising an ability to act; an individual invested with authority; an institution, or government, which exercises control; as, the great powers of Europe; hence, often, a superhuman agent; a spirit; a divinity.
6. A military or naval force; an army or navy; a great host.
7. A large quantity; a great number; as, a power o good things.
8. (Mech.) The product arising from the multiplication of a number into itself; as, a square is the second power, and a cube is third power, of a number.
9. (Metaph.) Mental or moral ability to act; one of the faculties which are possessed by the mind or soul; as, the power of thinking, reasoning, judging, willing, fearing, hoping, etc.
10. (Optics) The degree to which a lens, mirror, or any optical instrument, magnifies; in the telescope, and usually in the microscope, the number of times it multiplies, or augments, the apparent diameter of an object; sometimes, in microscopes, the number of times it multiplies the apparent surface.
11. (Law) An authority enabling a person to dispose of an interest vested either in himself or in another person; ownership by appointment.
12. Hence, vested authority to act in a given case; as, the business was referred to a committee with power.
1. The rate at which mechanical energy is exerted or mechanical work performed, as by an engine or other machine, or an animal, working continuously; as, an engine of twenty horse power.
2. A mechanical agent; that from which useful mechanical energy is derived; as, water power; steam power; hand power, etc.
3. Applied force; force producing motion or pressure; as, the power applied at one and of a lever to lift a weight at the other end.
4. A machine acted upon by an animal, and serving as a motor to drive other machinery; as, a dog power.
Mechanical powers .
See under Mechanical.
Power loom, or Power press .
See Def. 8 (d), note.
Power of attorney .
See under Attorney.
Power of a point (relative to a given curve) (Geom.),
the result of substituting the coördinates of any point in that expression which being put equal to zero forms the equation of the curve; as, x2 + y2 - 100 is the power of the point x, y, relative to the circle x2 + y2 - 100 = 0.