RULE


Meaning of RULE in English

transcription, транскрипция: [ ru:l ]

( rules, ruling, ruled)

Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.

1.

Rules are instructions that tell you what you are allowed to do and what you are not allowed to do.

...a thirty-two-page pamphlet explaining the rules of basketball...

Strictly speaking, this was against the rules.

N-COUNT : oft N of n , N num

2.

A rule is a statement telling people what they should do in order to achieve success or a benefit of some kind.

An important rule is to drink plenty of water during any flight...

N-COUNT : oft N for/of n

3.

The rules of something such as a language or a science are statements that describe the way that things usually happen in a particular situation.

...according to the rules of quantum theory.

N-COUNT : oft N of n

4.

If something is the rule , it is the normal state of affairs.

However, for many Americans today, weekend work has unfortunately become the rule rather than the exception.

N-SING : the N

5.

The person or group that rules a country controls its affairs.

For four centuries, he says, foreigners have ruled Angola...

He ruled for eight months.

...the long line of feudal lords who had ruled over this land.

VERB : V n , V , V over n

Rule is also a noun.

...demands for an end to one-party rule.

N-UNCOUNT : usu supp N

6.

If something rules your life, it influences or restricts your actions in a way that is not good for you.

Scientists have always been aware of how fear can rule our lives and make us ill.

VERB : V n

7.

When someone in authority rules that something is true or should happen, they state that they have officially decided that it is true or should happen. ( FORMAL )

The court ruled that laws passed by the assembly remained valid...

The Israeli court has not yet ruled on the case...

A provincial magistrates’ court last week ruled it unconstitutional...

The committee ruled against all-night opening mainly on safety grounds.

= pronounce

VERB : V that , V on n , V n adj / n , V against n , also V in favour of n

8.

If you rule a straight line, you draw it using something that has a straight edge.

...a ruled grid of horizontal and vertical lines.

VERB : V-ed , also V n

9.

see also golden rule , ground rule , ruling , slide rule

10.

If you say that something happens as a rule , you mean that it usually happens.

As a rule, however, such attacks have been aimed at causing damage rather than taking life.

= generally, usually

PHRASE : PHR with cl

11.

If someone in authority bends the rules or stretches the rules , they do something even though it is against the rules.

There is a particular urgency in this case, and it would help if you could bend the rules.

PHRASE : V inflects

12.

A rule of thumb is a rule or principle that you follow which is not based on exact calculations, but rather on experience.

A good rule of thumb is that a broker must generate sales of ten times his salary if his employer is to make a profit...

PHRASE : rule inflects

13.

If workers work to rule , they protest by working according to the rules of their job without doing any extra work or taking any new decisions. ( BRIT )

Nurses are continuing to work to rule.

PHRASE : V inflects

Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary.      Английский словарь Коллинз COBUILD для изучающих язык на продвинутом уровне.