SUPERINTENDENT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does superintendent mean? 

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

1. a person who directs and manages an organization

2. a caretaker for an apartment house; represents the owner as janitor and rent collector

  Familiarity information: SUPERINTENDENT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUPERINTENDENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who directs and manages an organization

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

overseer; superintendent

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

supervisor (one who supervises or has charge and direction of)

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

ramrod (a harshly demanding overseer)

school superintendent (the superintendent of a school system)

Derivation:

superintend (watch and direct)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A caretaker for an apartment house; represents the owner as janitor and rent collector

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

super; superintendent

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

caretaker (a custodian who is hired to take care of something (property or a person))

 Context examples 

The superintendent rose—"I have a word to address to the pupils," said she.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Give it to the superintendent at the police-station. Until he comes, I must detain you all under my personal custody.”

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

They'll be machinery enough an' hands enough to do it all in decent workin' hours, an' Mart, s'help me, I'll make yeh superintendent of the shebang—the whole of it, all of it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

We went; following the superintendent's guidance, we had to thread some intricate passages, and mount a staircase before we reached her apartment; it contained a good fire, and looked cheerful.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Martin talked with the superintendent of the Asa agencies, and after dinner he drew him aside with Hermann, whom he backed financially for the best bicycle store with fittings in Oakland.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

This document remained locked in my drawer all day: after tea, I asked leave of the new superintendent to go to Lowton, in order to perform some small commissions for myself and one or two of my fellow-teachers; permission was readily granted; I went.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Another man at table who had swallowed the same bait was the superintendent of the Pacific Coast agencies for the Asa Bicycle Company.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Mr. Brocklehurst, I believe I intimated in the letter which I wrote to you three weeks ago, that this little girl has not quite the character and disposition I could wish: should you admit her into Lowood school, I should be glad if the superintendent and teachers were requested to keep a strict eye on her, and, above all, to guard against her worst fault, a tendency to deceit.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"Why, yes, yes, dinner, you know—just pot luck with us, with your old superintendent, you rascal," he uttered nervously, poking Martin in an attempt at jocular fellowship.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was a landscape in water colours, of which I had made a present to the superintendent, in acknowledgment of her obliging mediation with the committee on my behalf, and which she had framed and glazed.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)