Noun

(uncountable)   The act of regulating or the condition of being regulated.

(countable)   A law or administrative rule, issued by an organization, used to guide or prescribe the conduct of members of that organization.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17

, author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot , title=Money just makes the rich suffer , volume=188, issue=23, page=19 , magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) citation , passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […]  The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.}}

* Army regulations state a soldier AWOL over 30 days is a deserter.

(European Union law) A form of legislative act which is self-effecting, and requires no further intervention by the Member States to become law.

(lb) Mechanism controlling DNA transcription.

(lb) Physiological process which consists in maintaining homoeostasis.

Noun

(Indian feudal history) A low-ranking official responsible for the regulation of irrigation and the distribution of water.

* 1807 , Francis Buchanan, A Journey from Madras Through the Countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar , page 269

The Nirgunty'' is generally a ''Whallia;'' but sometimes a ''Súdra holds the office, which is hereditary.

* 1811 , John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World , volume 8, page 658

The proper bu?ine?s of the divi?ion of Whalliaru, called Mora?u, is the cultivation of the ground, in which both men and women are very indu?trious; but they do not appear to have ever formed a part of the native militia, like the Súdra cultivators, nor to have ever been entru?ted with arms, until they began to enter into the Company’s ?ervice. From among them ?everal families hold, by hereditary right, the low village offices of Toti and Nirgunty , or of watchmen and conductors of water.

* 1826 , The History of British India , volume 1, page 265

When these allowances are withdrawn the heap is measured; and for every candaca which it contains, a measure equal to 5 1/10 Winchester bushels, there is again deducted half a seer to the village watchmen, two and a half seers to the accomptant, as much to the chief of the village; and the bottom of the heap, about an inch thick, mixed with the cow-dung which in order to purify it had been spread on the ground, is given to the Nirgunty , or conductor of water.