Meanings
present singular third person superintends · participle present superintending · participle past superintended · past superintended
- To oversee the work of others; to supervise.
Herb Abbott, the foreman, who superintended the whole operation and filled in wherever he was needed.
1982, Alice Munro, “The Turkey Season”, in The Moons of Jupiter2 more examples
Lady Marchmont had superintended her toilette, and it was the very triumph of exquisite taste; every thing about it seemed as fragile and delicate as herself.
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Chapter XVIII. The Fête.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 137The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain 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.
1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, pages 58–59 - To administer the affairs of something or someone.
1 more example
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.
1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 294
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Ecclesiastical Latinsuperintendō
- Ecclesiastical Latinsuperintendō
- Englishsuperintend
Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin superintendō.
More words from Ecclesiastical Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian надзиравам, контролирам
- надзиравам (nadziravam)to oversee the work of others
- контролирам (kontroliram)to oversee the work of others
Czech dohlížet, dozírat
- dohlížetto oversee the work of others
- dozíratto oversee the work of others
- říditto oversee the work of others
French surveiller, diriger
- surveillerto oversee the work of others
- dirigerto oversee the work of others
German aufsehen
- aufsehento oversee the work of others
Italian soprintendere
- soprintendereto oversee the work of others
Cite this entry
superintend. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/superintend
“superintend.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/superintend. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “superintend,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/superintend.
Source: superintend on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.