regiments

Noun

regiment (countable and uncountable, plural regiments)

1. (countable) A unit of armed troops under the command of an officer, and consisting of several smaller units.
   • It was an old, withered man, who had served the Government in the days of the Mutiny as a native officer in a newly raised cavalry regiment.1900 December – 1901 October, Rudyard Kipling, chapter III, in Kim, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1901, →OCLC, page 65
2. (archaic) Rule or governance over a person, place etc.; government, authority.
   • What place is there in all the world, not ſubiect to the regiment and power of this citie?1576, Abraham Fleming, translating Cicero, A Panoplie of Epistles,&bnsp;XXXIII
3. (obsolete) The state or office of a ruler; rulership.
   • But this it is that doth excruciate
     The verie ſubſtance of my vexed ſoule:
     To ſee our neighbours that were wont to quake
     And tremble at the Perſean Monarkes name,
     Now ſits and laughs our regiment to ſcorne, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
4. (obsolete) Influence or control exercised by someone or something (especially a planet).
   • Nature that fram’d vs of foure Elements,
     Warring within our breaſts for regiment,
     Doth teach vs all to haue aſpyring minds:c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
5. (countable, obsolete) A place under a particular rule; a kingdom or domain.
   • An auncient booke[…]
     That of this lands firſt conqueſt did deuize,
     And old diuiſion into Regiments, […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 324
6. (countable, obsolete) A regimen.

See all 8 meanings of regiment