Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Administration?

\Ad*min`is*tra"tion\ (?; 277), n. [OE. administracioun, L. administratio: cf. F. administration.] 1. 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. His financial administration was of a piece with his military administration. --Macaulay. 2. 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. A mild and popular administration. --Macaulay. The administration has been opposed in parliament. --Johnson. 3. 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. 4. (Law) (a) The management and disposal, under legal authority, of the estate of an intestate, or of a testator having no competent executor. (b) The management of an estate of a deceased person by an executor, the strictly corresponding term execution not being in use. {Administration with the will annexed}, administration granted where the testator has appointed no executor, or where his appointment of an executor for any cause has failed, as by death, incompetency, refusal to act, etc. Syn: Conduct; management; direction; regulation; execution; dispensation; distribution.