MAGISTRATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does magistrate mean? 

• MAGISTRATE (noun)
  The noun MAGISTRATE has 1 sense:

1. a lay judge or civil authority who administers the law (especially one who conducts a court dealing with minor offenses)

  Familiarity information: MAGISTRATE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAGISTRATE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A lay judge or civil authority who administers the law (especially one who conducts a court dealing with minor offenses)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("magistrate" is a kind of...):

judge; jurist; justice (a public official authorized to decide questions brought before a court of justice)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "magistrate"):

justice of the peace (a local magistrate with limited powers)

stipendiary; stipendiary magistrate ((United Kingdom) a paid magistrate (appointed by the Home Secretary) dealing with police cases)

Derivation:

magisterial (of or relating to a magistrate)

 Context examples 

Our whole scheme might seem fantastic if laid before a magistrate.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You see in me the mayor and chief magistrate of the ancient and powerful town of Lepe.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The magistrates of the town, hearing of my letter, received me as a public minister.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I was accordingly conducted, by the magistrate and several other persons, to the inn.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“It is not for a magistrate to wink at the breaking of the law, sir,” he answered.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Tell her she shall be put in the stocks if she does not take herself off," replied the magistrate.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The magistrates, and overseers, and churchwardens, are always wanting his opinion.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Perfectly right, he interrupted very cheerily, perfectly right—a gentleman and a magistrate.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

There was no use appealing to a magistrate.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Before this boy, who was reputed to be a great scholar, and was very good-looking, and at least half-a-dozen years my senior, I was carried as before a magistrate.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)