Au*toc"ra*cy (?), n.; pl. Autocracies. [Gr. : cf. F. autocratie. See Autocrat.]
1.
Independent or self-derived power; absolute or controlling authority; supremacy.
The divine will moves, not by the external impulse or inclination of objects, but determines itself by an absolute autocracy.
South.
2.
Supreme, uncontrolled, unlimited authority, or right of governing in a single person, as of an autocrat.
3.
Political independence or absolute sovereignty (of a state); autonomy.
Barlow.
4. Med.
The action of the vital principle, or of the instinctive powers, toward the preservation of the individual; also, the vital principle.
[In this sense, written also
autocrasy.]
Dunglison.
© Webster 1913.