administer
Pronunciation
  • (America) IPA: /ədˈmɪnɪstɚ/
Verb

administer (administers, present participle administering; past and past participle administered)

  1. (transitive) To cause to ingest (a drug), either by openly offering or through deceit.
    We administered the medicine to our dog by mixing it in his food.
    • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 15, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:
  2. (transitive) To apportion out, distribute.
    • A fountain […] administers to the pleasure as well as the plenty of the place.
    • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:
    • [Let zephyrs] administer their tepid, genial airs.
  3. (transitive) To manage or supervise the conduct, performance or execution of; to govern or regulate the parameters for the conduct, performance or execution of; to work in an administrative capacity.
    • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle 3, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], OCLC 960856019 ↗:
      For forms of government let fools contest: / Whate'er is best administered is best.
  4. (intransitive) To minister (to).
    administering to the sick
  5. (legal) To settle, as the estate of one who dies without a will, or whose will fails of an executor.
  6. To give, as an oath.
    • 1595 December 9 (first known performance)​, William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iii]:
      Swear […] to keep the oath that we administer.
  7. (medicine) To give a drug to a patient, be it orally or by any other means.
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