资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Power \Pow"er\, n. [OE. pouer, poer, OF. poeir, pooir, F.
   pouvoir, n. & v., fr. LL. potere, for L. posse, potesse, to
   be able, to have power. See {Possible}, {Potent}, and cf.
   {Posse comitatus}.]
   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. ``One next himself in power, and next in
      crime.'' --Milton.

   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. ``The power
      of fancy.'' --Shak.

   3. Capacity of undergoing or suffering; fitness to be acted
      upon; susceptibility; -- called also {passive power}; as,
      great power of endurance.

            Power, then, is active and passive; faculty is
            active power or capacity; capacity is passive power.
                                                  --Sir W.
                                                  Hamilton.

   4. The exercise of a faculty; the employment of strength; the
      exercise of any kind of control; influence; dominion;
      sway; command; government.

            Power is no blessing in itself but when it is
            employed to protect the innocent.     --Swift.

   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.
      ``The powers of darkness.'' --Milton.

            And the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
                                                  --Matt. xxiv.
                                                  29.

   6. A military or naval force; an army or navy; a great host.
      --Spenser.

            Never such a power . . . Was levied in the body of a
            land.                                 --Shak.