(n.) The act of administering; government of public
affairs; the service rendered, or duties assumed, in conducting
affairs; the conducting of any office or employment; direction;
management.
(n.) The executive part of government; the persons
collectively who are intrusted with the execution of laws and the
superintendence of public affairs; the chief magistrate and his cabinet
or council; or the council, or ministry, alone, as in Great Britain.
(n.) The act of administering, or tendering something to
another; dispensation; as, the administration of a medicine, of an
oath, of justice, or of the sacrament.
(n.) The management and disposal, under legal authority,
of the estate of an intestate, or of a testator having no competent
executor.
(n.) The management of an estate of a deceased person by
an executor, the strictly corresponding term execution not being in
use.
