/ dʒʌdʒ; NAmE / noun , verb
■ noun
IN COURT
1.
a person in a court who has the authority to decide how criminals should be punished or to make legal decisions :
a High Court judge
a federal judge
The case comes before Judge Cooper next week.
The judge sentenced him to five years in prison.
—compare Justice of the Peace , magistrate
IN COMPETITION
2.
a person who decides who has won a competition :
the panel of judges at the flower show
The judges' decision is final.
SB WHO GIVES OPINION
3.
[ usually sing. ] a person who has the necessary knowledge or skills to give their opinion about the value or quality of sb/sth :
She's a good judge of character.
'I'm not sure that's a good way to do it.' ' Let me be the judge of that .'
■ verb
FORM OPINION
1.
to form an opinion about sb/sth, based on the information you have :
[ v ]
As far as I can judge, all of them are to blame.
Judging by her last letter, they are having a wonderful time.
To judge from what he said, he was very disappointed.
[ vn ]
Schools should not be judged only on exam results.
Each painting must be judged on its own merits.
[ vn - n , vn to inf ]
The tour was judged a great success.
The tour was judged to have been a great success.
[ vn - adj ]
They judged it wise to say nothing.
[also v that , vn that , v wh- ]
ESTIMATE
2.
to guess the size, amount, etc. of sth :
[ v wh- ]
It's difficult to judge how long the journey will take.
[ vn to inf ]
I judged him to be about 50.
IN COMPETITION
3.
to decide the result of a competition; to be the judge in a competition :
[ vn ]
She was asked to judge the essay competition.
[also v ]
GIVE OPINION
4.
to give your opinion about sb, especially when you disapprove of them :
[ vn ]
What gives you the right to judge other people?
[also v ]
IN COURT
5.
to decide whether sb is guilty or innocent in a court :
[ vn ]
to judge a case
[ vn - adj ]
to judge sb guilty / not guilty
•
IDIOMS
- don't judge a book by its cover
••
WORD ORIGIN
Middle English : from Old French juge (noun), juger (verb), from Latin judex , judic- , from jus law + dicere to say.