Mā'ster1, n.
Mā'ster, n. [O. Eng. maistre, maister, O. Fr. māistre, N. Fr. maître, Pr. maistre, maestre, mestre, majestre, Sp. maestre, maestro, O. Sp. mestre, mestro, Pg. mestre, It. maestro, mastro, from Lat. magister; A-S. māster, māgister, māgester, O. H. Ger. meister, N. H. Ger. meister, D. meester, Dan. mester, Sw. mästare, Icel. meistari. See MAGISTER.]
Sense 1. One of eminent rank, power, or authority; a superior; a leader; a chief. It is employed as a title of respectful address, but more usually in a familiar way to an inferior, a young person, or a boy.
Master doctor, you have brought those drugs. Shak.
Where there are little masters and misses in a house. Swift.
☞ As a title of address the word is pronounced, and sometimes, though rarely, written mister.
Sense 2. One exercising authority; a person having a right to control or dispose; a ruler, governor, director, or manager; hence, specifically, (a.) An owner or possessor; a proprietor.
Nations that want protectors will have masters. Ames.
When I have made myself master of a hundred thousand drachmas. Addison.
(b.) A person having others under his control and authority; — correlative of slave, servant, apprentice, assistant, &c. “Cæsar, the world's great master and his own.” Pope.
It would be believed that he rather took the horse for his subject, than his master. Dryden.
(c.) The director of a school; a teacher; an instructor.
☞ In this sense the word is giving place to the more appropriate words teacher, instructor, and preceptor.
(d.) (Naut.) The commander of a merchant ship; — usually called captain. Also, an officer upon a ship of war who takes rank immediately after the lieutenants, and navigates the ship under the direction of the captain.
Sense 3. One highly skilled in any occupation, art, or science; one of great eminence in a profession; a revered authority; an adept; as, a man is master of his business; a great master of music, of the flute or violin; a master of his subject.
Little masters, certain German engravers of the sixteenth century, so called from the extreme smallness of their prints. — Master in chancery, an officer of courts of equity, who acts as an assistant to the chancellor or judge, by inquiring into various matters referred to him, and reporting thereon to the court. The office has recently been abolished in England. — Master of arts, one who takes the second degree at a university; also, the degree or title itself, indicated by the abbreviation M. A., or A. M. — Master of the horse, the third great officer in the British court, having the management of the royal stables, &c. In solemn cavalcades he rides next the sovereign. — Master of the rolls, in England, an officer who has charge of the rolls and patents that pass the great seal, and of the records of the chancery, and acts as assistant judge of the court. Bouvier. Wharton. Daniell. — To be master of one's self, to have entire self-control; not to be governed by passion.
☞ Master, signifying chief, principal, masterly, &c., is often used in the formation of self-explaining compounds; as, master-builder, master-chord, master-jest, master-mason, master-mind, master-note, master-passion, master-proof, master-spirit, master-spring, master-string, master-tooth, master-touch, master-tower, master-town, master-workman, and the like.