We acknowledge him [God] our sovereign good.
Hooker.
5. Efficacious in the highest degree; effectual; controlling; as, a
sovereign remedy. Dryden.
Such a sovereign influence has this passion upon the regulation of
the lives and actions of men.
South.
Sovereign state, a state which administers its own government, and is
not dependent upon, or subject to, another power.
Sov"er*eign (? or ?; 277), n. 1. The person, body, or state in which
independent and supreme authority is vested; especially, in a monarchy,
a king, queen, or emperor.
No question is to be made but that the bed of the Mississippi
belongs to the sovereign, that is, to the nation.
Jefferson.
2. A gold coin of Great Britain, on which an effigy of the head of the
reigning king or queen is stamped, valued at one pound sterling, or
about $4.86.
3. (Zoöl.) Any butterfly of the tribe Nymphalidi, or genus Basilarchia,
as the ursula and the viceroy.
Syn. -- King; prince; monarch; potentate; emperor.
Sov"er*eign*ize (?), v. i. To exercise supreme authority. [Obs.] Sir T.
Herbert.
Sov"er*eign*ly, adv. In a sovereign manner; in the highest degree;
supremely. Chaucer.
Sov"er*eign*ty (?), n.; pl. Sovereignties (#). [OE. soverainetee, OF.
sovraineté, F. souveraineté.] The quality or state of being sovereign,
or of being a sovereign; the exercise of, or right to exercise, supreme
power; dominion; sway; supremacy; independence; also, that which is
sovereign; a sovereign state; as, Italy was formerly divided into many
sovereignties.
Woman desiren to have sovereignty As well over their husband as
over their love.
Chaucer.