Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Rector

Rec′tor (r?k′t?r), n. [L., fr. regere, rectum, to lead straight, to rule: cf. F. recteur. See Regiment, Right.]

1. A ruler or governor. [R.]

God is the supreme rector of the world. Sir M. Hale.

2. (a) (Ch. of Eng.) A clergyman who has the charge and cure of a parish, and has the tithes, etc.; the clergyman of a parish where the tithes are not impropriate. See the Note under Vicar. Blackstone. (b) (Prot. Epis. Ch.) A clergyman in charge of a parish.

3. The head master of a public school. [Scot.]

4. The chief elective officer of some universities, as in France and Scotland; sometimes, the head of a college; as, the Rector of Exeter College, or of Lincoln College, at Oxford.

5. (R.C.CH.) The superior officer or chief of a convent or religious house; and among the Jesuits the superior of a house that is a seminary or college.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.