1650s, agent noun in Latin form from regulate. In English history, from 1680s; in American history, from 1767, applied to local posses that kept order (or disturbed it) in rural regions. As a mechanical device or clock used to set the time of other pieces, from 1758.
雙語例句
1. An automatic voltage regulator ensured a constant output from the generator.
3. His defense, which seems credible on the evidence so far, is that the bank masked its skullduggery so completely that no regulator anywhere in the world could get a handle on it.