ARBITER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does arbiter mean? 

• ARBITER (noun)
  The noun ARBITER has 2 senses:

1. someone with the power to settle matters at will

2. someone chosen to judge and decide a disputed issue

  Familiarity information: ARBITER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ARBITER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone with the power to settle matters at will

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

arbiter; supreme authority

Context example:

she was the final arbiter on all matters of fashion

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

expert (a person with special knowledge or ability who performs skillfully)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone chosen to judge and decide a disputed issue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

arbiter; arbitrator; umpire

Context example:

an umpire was appointed to settle the tax case

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

evaluator; judge (an authority who is able to estimate worth or quality)

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

third party (someone other than the principals who are involved in a transaction)

Derivation:

arbitrate (act between parties with a view to reconciling differences)

 Context examples 

Quite a crowd had gathered silently around, and I could see that the talk had been regarded as a contest between two men who were looked upon as rival arbiters of fashion.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I looked upon them as superior beings who would be the arbiters of my future destiny.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

They think they think, and such thinkless creatures are the arbiters of the lives of the few who really think.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And with regard to their influencing public manners, Miss Crawford must not misunderstand me, or suppose I mean to call them the arbiters of good-breeding, the regulators of refinement and courtesy, the masters of the ceremonies of life.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But usually it was as the friend of the great, the arbiter of fashions, the king of bucks, and the best-dressed man in town that his reputation reached us.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If you had made bad taste your enemy, the world of fashion would willingly have looked upon you as an arbiter by virtue of your family traditions, and you might without a struggle have stepped into the position to which this young upstart Brummell aspires.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)