master

1. a great artist, esp an anonymous but influential artist

2. the principal of some colleges

3. a graduate holding a master's degree

4. the chief executive officer aboard a merchant ship

5. Chiefly Brit a male teacher

6. an officer of the Supreme Court of Judicature subordinate to a judge

7. a machine or device that operates to control a similar one

8. the heir apparent of a Scottish viscount or baron

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

master

[′mas·tər]

(engineering)

A device which controls subsidiary devices.

A precise workpiece through which duplicates are made.

(engineering acoustics)

master phonograph record

(navigation)

master station

master

botmaster

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

master

Primary, controlling. See master-slave communications and master file.

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Master

(from Latin magister, “head,” “chief,” “teacher”), the name of several offices in ancient Rome, for example, magister equitum, the assistant to the dictator, and magister militum, the commander in chief during the late empire. Later, in Europe, the title of grand master (Grossmeister) was used by the head of a Catholic knightly religious order and by the head of the Masonic Grand Lodge.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Now the master has set everything to rights, and is ready to go home to dinner.

As it was now later than little Alice's usual bedtime, Grandfather broke off his narrative, promising to talk more about Master Cheever and his scholars some other evening.

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Here again," added Master Jacques, fumbling afresh in his pouch, "is something that we have found at Marc Cenaine's house."

"I will confess to you," continued Master Jacques, with his timid and awkward smile, "that I have tried it over the furnace, but I have succeeded no better than with my own."

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My master sent me for a fortnight to a neighboring farmer's, who had a meadow which was skirted on one side by the railway.

Since then I have seen many horses much alarmed and restive at the sight or sound of a steam engine; but thanks to my good master's care, I am as fearless at railway stations as in my own stable.

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The master was running up, but was too far away; and it was Collie that saved the hound's life.

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Don Quixote was not very well satisfied with the divinations of the ape, as he did not think it proper that an ape should divine anything, either past or future; so while Master Pedro was arranging the show, he retired with Sancho into a corner of the stable, where, without being overheard by anyone, he said to him, "Look here, Sancho, I have been seriously thinking over this ape's extraordinary gift, and have come to the conclusion that beyond doubt this Master Pedro, his master, has a pact, tacit or express, with the devil."

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``How, knave,'' replied his master, ``wilt thou not obey my commands?''

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This occurrence took place very soon after I went to live with my old master, and under the following circumstances.

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My master's design was to show me in all the towns by the way, and to step out of the road for fifty or a hundred miles, to any village, or person of quality's house, where he might expect custom.

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A year passed, and when Philip came to the school the old masters were all in their places; but a good many changes had taken place notwithstanding their stubborn resistance, none the less formidable because it was concealed under an apparent desire to fall in with the new head's ideas.

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