Influence

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

·noun A flowing in or upon; influx.

II. Influence ·noun Induction.

III. Influence ·noun Power or authority arising from elevated station, excelence of character or intellect, wealth, ·etc.; reputation; acknowledged ascendency; as, he is a man of influence in the community.

IV. Influence ·vt To control or move by power, physical or moral; to affect by gentle action; to exert an influence upon; to modify, bias, or sway; to Move; to Persuade; to Induce.

V. Influence ·noun Hence, in general, the bringing about of an effect, phusical or moral, by a gradual process; controlling power quietly exerted; agency, force, or tendency of any kind which the sun exerts on animal and vegetable life; the influence of education on the mind; the influence, according to astrologers,of the stars over affairs.