v. [ad. eccl. L. superintendĕre: see SUPER- 2 and INTEND v.]
1. trans. To have or exercise the charge or direction of (operations or affairs); to look after, oversee, supervise the working or management of (an institution, etc.).
c. 1615. Bacon, Adv. Sir G. Villiers, Lett. 1872, VI. 22. The King will appoint Commissioners in the nature of a Council, who may superintend the works of this nature, and regulate what concerns the colonies.
1673. S. Parker, Reproof, 167. To this purpose did our blessed Saviour depute the Apostolical order … to superintend the Affaires of his Holy Catholique Church.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 420. The appointing proper persons to superintend such gardens or nurseries.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 148. British America is superintended by an officer styled governor general.
1802. Maria Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. viii. 58. The lady, who superintended the charity-school.
1838. Lytton, Alice, I. x. He could more often escape from public cares to superintend his private interests.
1859. Ld. Acton, Lett., in Gasquet, Ld. Acton & his Circle (1906), 64. Newman will want superintending in the matter of foreign tongues.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xxiii. The cooks and other slaves who superintended the meals of the imperial family.
b. To exercise supervision over (a person).
1776. Trial of Nundocomar, 77/1. I was his chief gomastah: I used to superintend his other gomastahs, and sometimes write myself.
1811. Shelley, St. Irvyne, viii. I burn with curiosity and solicitude to learn for what thou hast thus superintended me.
c. intr. with † over, or absol.
1663. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xxxi. (1665), 377. This superintends over all, and issues forth her directions and orders to them.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. iv. § 13. 229. They called both the Childbearing of Women, and the Goddesses that superintend over the same Eilithuia or Lucina.
1883. G. Moore, Mod. Lover, x. She declared that she was ready to superintend.
† 2. trans. To keep a watch upon. Obs. rare.
1654. trans. Scudery’s Curia Pol., 188. The eyes of all the earth observe our motion and superintend our actions.
Hence Superintended ppl. a., Superintending vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1713. Derham, Phys. Theol., IV. xi. § 4 (1727), 189. What hath been said … plainly argues Design, and a super-intending Wisdom.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 107. The general superintending power of the legislature in the mother country.
1799. S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T. (1800), III. 14. In the hall he was stopped by a faithful superintending domestic.
1809. in Trans. Soc. Arts (1811), XXVIII. 173. A. Shennan, Superintending-Master of the First Division [of the Fleet].
1819. W. Taylor, in Monthly Rev., LXXXIX. 79. The antient mischiefs of a superintended press.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xx. IV. 399. The … coalition … would be … dissolved if his superintending care were withdrawn.
