executor

plural executors · alternative executour

1. A person who carries out some task.

   This manner can no longer be considered "folk-song," yet neither can it be taken as "art-song," at least not conscious art, for the executors, the chazzanim, did not know of any theory of music and modulation.

   1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 192

2. computingA component of a system that executes or runs something.

   When searching for a solution is unnecessary, then the program executor "doesn't care" which solution is generated nor how it is obtained.

   2014, Robert Kowalski, Thom Frühwirth, Logic for Problem Solving, Revisited, page 114

3. lawSomeone appointed by a testator to administer their estate in accordance with their will; an administrator.

   literary executor

   1 more example

   Mary Ann Mead (executor of James Mead deceased,) of Aurora, Ia., for improvements in packing and pressing cotton.

   1847, editorial staff, “Packing and Pressing Cotton”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 68

4. obsoleteAn executioner.

   The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, / Delivering o'er to executors pale / The lazy yawning drone.

   1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], line 203