Related:

• MACE, n. A staff of office signifying authority. Its form, that of a heavy club, indicates its original purpose and use in dissuading from dissent.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• ALIEN, n. An American sovereign in his probationary state.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• LITIGANT, n. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• VOTE, n. The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• KING, n. A male person commonly known in America as a "crowned head," although he never wears a crown and has usually no head to speak of.
  A king, in times long, long gone by, Said to his lazy jeste...
• Coronation, n.: The ceremony of investing a sovereign with the outward and visible signs of his divine right to be blown skyhigh with a dynamite bomb.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• PREROGATIVE, n. A sovereign's right to do wrong. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary