[ad. Gr. αὐτοκράτεια, n. of state f. αὐτοκρατής: see AUTOCRAT. Cf. mod. F. autocratie.]

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  † 1.  Self-sustained or independent power. Obs.

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1655.  H. L’Estrange, Chas. I., 121. The king of Sweden … had prospered to an autocracy, a self-subsistence, and so needed no participants … in the hazard.

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c. 1716.  South, Serm., VIII. 285 (T.). [The Divine Will] moves not by the external impulse … of objects, but determines itself by an absolute autocracy.

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1755.  Johnson, Autocrasy, independent power.

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  † b.  Of states: Possession of the right of self-government, political independence; = AUTONOMY.

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1864.  Webster cites Barlow.

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  2.  Absolute government.

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1855.  Merivale, Rom. Emp., xlviii. V. 418. Caius … had inherited his autocracy.

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1855.  Milman, Lat. Chr. (1864), V. IX. viii. 376. Unrepining subjection under the religious autocracy of the Pope.

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  b.  transf. Controlling authority or influence.

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1855.  H. Spencer, Psychol. (1872), II. VII. ii. 314. The establishment of this autocracy among the faculties.

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1860.  Farrar, Orig. Lang., ii. 36. The autocracy of philosophic bodies.

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  3.  Med. The controlling influence exerted by nature or the vital principle on disease.

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1864.  Webster cites Dunglison.

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