Arbiter
WordNet
noun
(1) Someone chosen to judge and decide a disputed issue
(2) Someone with the power to settle matters at will
"She was the final arbiter on all matters of fashion"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
< < for + .
Noun
- A person appointed, or chosen, by parties to determine a controversy between them; an arbitrator.
- 1931, William Bennett Munro, The government of the United States, national, state, and local, page 495
- In order to protect individual liberty there must be an arbiter between the governing powers and the governed.
- 1931, William Bennett Munro, The government of the United States, national, state, and local, page 495
- (With of) Any person who has the power of judging and determining, or ordaining, without control; one whose power of deciding and governing is not limited.
- Television and film, not Vogue and similar magazines, are the arbiters of fashion.
Related terms
- arbitrable
- arbitrage
- arbitrary
- arbitrate
- arbitration
- arbitrator
Verb
- To act as arbiter.
- 2003, Jean-Benoit Nadeau, Julie Barlow, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong: Why We Love France But Not the French, page 116
- Worse, since there was no institution to arbiter disagreements between Parliament and the government, whenever Parliament voted against the government on the smallest issues, coalitions fragmented, and governments had to be recomposed.
- 2003, Jean-Benoit Nadeau, Julie Barlow, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong: Why We Love France But Not the French, page 116