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Webster 1913 Edition

Superintend

Suˊper-in-tend′

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Superintended
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Superintending
.]
[L.
superintendere
. See
Super-
, and
Intend
.]
To have or exercise the charge and oversight of; to oversee with the power of direction; to take care of with authority; to supervise;
as, an officer
superintends
the building of a ship or the construction of a fort
.
The king may appoint a council, who may
superintend
the works of this nature.
Bacon.
Syn. –
Superintend
,
Supervise
.
These words in general use are the synonymous. As sometimes used, supervise implies the more general, and superintend, the more particular and constant, inspection or direction. Among architects there is a disposition to use the word supervise in the sense of a general oversight of the main points of construction with reference to the design, etc., and to employ the word superintend to signify a constant, careful attention to all the details of construction. But this technical distinction is not firmly established.

Webster 1828 Edition

Superintend

SUPERINTEND'

,
Verb.
T.
[super and intend.] To have or exercise the charge and oversight of; to oversee with the power of direction; to take care of with authority; as, an officer superintends the building of a ship or the construction of a fort. God exercises a superintending care over all his creatures.

Definition 2024

superintend

superintend

English

Verb

superintend ‎(third-person singular simple present superintends, present participle superintending, simple past and past participle superintended)

  1. To oversee the work of others; to supervise.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:
      The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. […] Their example was followed by others at a time when the master of Mohair was superintending in person the docking of some two-year-olds, and equally invisible.
  2. To administer the affairs of something or someone.
    • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Episode 12, The Cyclops
      A posse of Dublin Metropolitan police superintended by the Chief Commissioner in person maintained order in the vast throng for whom the York street brass and reed band whiled away the intervening time by admirably rendering on their blackdraped instruments the matchless melody endeared to us from the cradle by Speranza's plaintive muse.

Related terms

Translations

Etymology

From Latin superintendere

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