ruled

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of rule.

   The dynasty ruled the region until the revolution swept it away.

   The colony was ruled from across the ocean for two hundred years.

   Note

   A regular verb, so one form does both jobs: the dynasty ruled, and the colony was ruled. It carries every meaning of rule, from reigning, often with over, to deciding as a judge does and the slang sense of excelling. The line-drawing meaning is the one behind the adjective for lined paper: paper that has been ruled is simply ruled paper.

2. 2
   adjective

   Having lines printed or drawn across the surface, as on writing paper.

   He preferred ruled stationery for letters because his handwriting wandered otherwise.

   The accountant's ledger came with ruled columns for entering figures.

   Similarlined

   Oppositeunlined, plain, blank

3. 3
   adjective

   Describing a surface such that through every point on it there passes a straight line lying entirely within the surface.

   A hyperboloid of one sheet is ruled, with straight lines passing through each of its points.

   Engineers exploit ruled forms to build doubly curved roofs from straight members.

   Note

   A geometer's term, applied to surfaces, with scroll as its other name. The straight lines themselves are called rulings. A surface can curve and still be ruled: cones, cylinders and the hyperboloid of one sheet all qualify. The property is all-or-nothing, so a surface is never "more ruled" than another. Its rulings make ruled forms buildable from straight members.

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