judge

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To form an opinion or estimation of after careful consideration: judge heights; judging character.
2. v. Law To hear and decide on in a court of law; try: judge a case.
3. v. Obsolete To pass sentence on; condemn.
4. v. To act as one appointed to decide the winners of: judge an essay contest.
5. v. To determine or declare after consideration or deliberation.
6. v. Informal To have as an opinion or assumption; suppose: I judge you're right.
7. v. Bible To govern; rule. Used of an ancient Israelite leader.
8. v. To form an opinion or evaluation.
9. v. To act or decide as a judge.
10. n. One who judges, especially:
11. n. One who makes estimates as to worth, quality, or fitness: a good judge of used cars; a poor judge of character.
12. n. Law A public official who hears and decides cases brought before a court of law.
13. n. Law A bankruptcy referee.
14. n. One appointed to decide the winners of a contest or competition.
15. n. Bible A leader of the Israelites during a period of about 400 years between the death of Joshua and the accession of Saul.
16. n. Bible See Table at Bible.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A public officer invested with authority to hear and determine causes, civil or criminal, and to administer justice between parties in courts held for the purpose; a public officer appointed to exercise the judicial power; a justice; a magistrate.
2. n. [capitalized] A title of God as supreme arbiter of all things.
3. n. In a more general sense, any one intrusted with authority to arbitrate on the rights of others: as, no man ought to be a, judge in his own cause.
4. n. A person appointed to decide in any competition or contest; an authorized arbiter: as, to make one a, judge in a dispute; the, judges of a competitive exhibition.
5. n. A person skilled in determining the true nature or quality of anything; one qualified or able to discriminate, as between good and bad, right and wrong, genuine and spurious, etc.; a connoisseur; an expert: as, a judge of wines or of paintings; a judge of character or of qualifications.
6. n. In Jewish hist., an administrative officer who stood at the head of the Hebrew state in the intermediate period between the time of Moses and Joshua and that of the kings. These officers were generally military leaders, without any regular transmission of their authority, not supreme magistrates succeeding to the rule of Moses and Joshua. None of the judges had authority over all the tribes, and sometimes two or more were contemporaneous.
7. n. [capitalized] plural The seventh book of the Bible, properly the “Book of Judges” (Liber Judicum, Vulgate). It contains the history of the Israelites under the administration of the judges from the death of Joshua to about the time of the birth of Samuel. The date and authorship are unknown. Some critics regard Samuel as the author; others find traces of several authors or compilers, and place the final revision as late as the eighth century b. c.
8. n. In coal-mining, the measuring-rod with which the depth of a holing or jad is ascertained.
9. n. The term has sometimes been employed to designate a special judge, or one of a class of special judges, added to a court for the purpose of holding trials, but without being a member of a court in banc.
10. n. A chief judge.
11. n. Synonyms and Judge, Umpire, Referee, Arbitrator; justice, arbiter. Judge is a technical word for a legal officer with duties clearly defined: as, a judge of probate; or a general word for a person empowered to arbitrate or award: as, to act as judge at contests, an exhibition of paintings, a competitive examination, etc. Umpire is a name applied to the person selected to decide all disputed points connected with a public contest: as, the umpire in a game of base-ball. Referee is somewhat more loosely used. In legal usage referee means one to whom a pending cause or some branch of it is referred, with the sanction of the court, to act in place of the judge, or in aid of his determination, the result being a decision of the court; while an arbitrator is one to whom a question is referred simply by agreement of the parties, without sanction of the court. The reference of a pending cause to an arbitrator takes it out of court, and precludes further proceedings in court. In a boxing-match, boat-race, foot-ball game, etc., the referee is the same as an umpire. Sometimes an umpire is legally appointed to decide where arbitrators disagree. Thus all these words may have technical senses when used as legal terms.
12. To act as a judge; pronounce upon the merits of a cause or controversy; pass judgment.
13. To form a judgment or mental assertion; say to one's self that so and so is or is not true; make up one's mind about the truth of a matter.
14. To make a critical determination; decide as to what is true or false, good or bad, genuine or spurious, etc.; estimate the value or magnitude of anything.
15. To hear and determine authoritatively, as a cause or controversy; examine into and decide upon.
16. To try at the bar of justice; pass judgment upon.
17. To pass sentence upon; adjudge; sentence; condemn.
18. To form a judgment or opinion of or upon; decide upon critically; estimate.
19. To hold as an opinion; esteem; consider.
20. If men judge that learning should be referred to action, they judge well.
21. Synonyms To account, hold, believe, deem, consider, regard.
22. n. In angling, the name of an artificial fly.
23. To govern or regulate by right of authority, as the judges of Israel who held office between Joshua and the kings.

Wiktionary

1. n. A public official whose duty it is to administer the law, especially by presiding over trials and rendering judgments; a justice.
2. n. A person who decides the fate of someone or something that has been called into question.
3. n. A person officiating at a sports or similar event.
4. n. A person whose opinion on a subject is respected.
5. v. transitive To sit in judgment on; to pass sentence on.
6. v. intransitive To sit in judgment, to act as judge.
7. v. transitive To form an opinion on.
8. v. intransitive To arbitrate; to pass opinion on something, especially to settle a dispute etc.
9. v. transitive To have as an opinion; to consider, suppose.
10. v. intransitive To form an opinion; to infer.
11. v. transitive, intransitive To criticize or label another person or thing.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Law) A public officer who is invested with authority to hear and determine litigated causes, and to administer justice between parties in courts held for that purpose.
2. n. One who has skill, knowledge, or experience, sufficient to decide on the merits of a question, or on the quality or value of anything; one who discerns properties or relations with skill and readiness; a connoisseur; an expert; a critic.
3. n. A person appointed to decide in a trial of skill, speed, etc., between two or more parties; an umpire.
4. n. (Jewish Hist.) One of the supreme magistrates, with both civil and military powers, who governed Israel for more than four hundred years.
5. n. The title of the seventh book of the Old Testament; the Book of Judges.
6. v. To hear and determine, as in causes on trial; to decide as a judge; to give judgment; to pass sentence.
7. v. To assume the right to pass judgment on another; to sit in judgment or commendation; to criticise or pass adverse judgment upon others. See Judge, v. t., 3.
8. v. To compare facts or ideas, and perceive their relations and attributes, and thus distinguish truth from falsehood; to determine; to discern; to distinguish; to form an opinion about.
9. v. To hear and determine by authority, as a case before a court, or a controversy between two parties.
10. v. To examine and pass sentence on; to try; to doom.
11. v. To arrogate judicial authority over; to sit in judgment upon; to be censorious toward.
12. v. To determine upon or deliberation; to esteem; to think; to reckon.
13. v. obsolete To exercise the functions of a magistrate over; to govern.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a public official authorized to decide questions brought before a court of justice
2. v. determine the result of (a competition)
3. v. form a critical opinion of
4. v. pronounce judgment on
5. v. put on trial or hear a case and sit as the judge at the trial of
6. v. judge tentatively or form an estimate of (quantities or time)
7. n. an authority who is able to estimate worth or quality