reign
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
reign/reɪn/
▶verb
- 1 rule as monarch.
- 2 (as adj. reigning) (of a sports player or team) currently holding a particular title.
- 3 prevail: confusion reigned.
- 1 the period of rule of a monarch.
- 2 the period during which someone or something is predominant or pre-eminent.
– origin ME: from OFr. reignier ‘to reign’, reigne ‘kingdom’, from L. regnum.
usage: The correct phrase is a free rein, not a free reign.
'reign' also found in these Oxford entries:
Arthurian
- Augustan
- cordon bleu
- digest
- Edwardian
- Elizabethan
- emirate
- empire
- grand siècle
- interregnum
- Jacobean
- kingdom
- King in Council
- King's Bench
- King's Counsel
- King's English
- King's evidence
- King's highway
- Manueline
- millennium
- napoleon
- Raj
- regnal
- regnant
- reign of terror
- rein
- spur royal
- Victorian
