1. (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.

2. (n.) The executive part of government; the persons collectively who are entrusted 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.

3. (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.

4. (n.) The management and disposal, under legal authority, of the estate of an intestate, or of a testator having no competent executor.

5. (n.) The management of an estate of a deceased person by an executor, the strictly corresponding term execution not being in use.