provost

American  

[proh-vohst, prov-uhst, proh-voh] / ˈproʊ voʊst, ˈprɒv əst, ˈproʊ voʊ /

noun

1. a person appointed to superintend or preside.

2. an administrative officer in any of various colleges and universities who holds high rank and is concerned with the curriculum, faculty appointments, etc.

3. Ecclesiastical. the chief dignitary of a cathedral or collegiate church.

4. the steward or bailiff of a medieval manor or an officer of a medieval administrative district.

5. the mayor of a municipality in Scotland.

6. Obsolete. a prison warden.

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provost British  

/ ˈprɒvəst /

noun

1. an appointed person who superintends or presides

2. the head of certain university colleges or schools

3. (in Scotland) the chairman and civic head of certain district councils or (formerly) of a burgh council Compare convener

4. Church of England the senior dignitary of one of the more recent cathedral foundations

5. RC Church

   1. the head of a cathedral chapter in England and some other countries

   2. (formerly) the member of a monastic community second in authority under the abbot

6. (in medieval times) an overseer, steward, or bailiff in a manor

7. obsolete a prison warder

8. military a military policeman

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Other Word Forms

• provostship noun

Etymology

Origin of provost

before 900; Middle English; Old English profost < Medieval Latin prōpositus abbot, prior, provost, literally, (one) placed before, Latin: past participle of prōpōnere. See pro- ¹, posit

Example Sentences

Mr. Halpern is the senior adviser to the provost at Yeshiva University.

From The Wall Street Journal

University exams scheduled for Saturday have been cancelled, provost Frank Doyle said.

From BBC

A nearby church would become the cathedral and she would be provost instead of Rev Poobalan.

From BBC

He worked at Iowa State before entering administration at Columbia, where he rose to executive vice provost before taking the helm at ASU in 2002.

From The Wall Street Journal

“It’s not sufficient to just keep doing what you were doing before, because the field evolves and the world evolves,” Baicker, the provost, said of the humanities changes.

From The Wall Street Journal