Judge-Advocate General

Judge Judge (j[u^]j), n. [OE. juge, OF. & F. juge, fr. OF. jugier, F. juger, to judge. See {Judge}, v. i.] [1913 Webster] 1. (Law) A public officer who is invested with authority to hear and determine litigated causes, and to administer justice between parties in courts held for that purpose. [1913 Webster]

The parts of a judge in hearing are four: to direct the evidence; to moderate length, repetition, or impertinency of speech; to recapitulate, select, and collate the material points of that which hath been said; and to give the rule or sentence. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]

2. One who has skill, knowledge, or experience, sufficient to decide on the merits of a question, or on the quality or value of anything; one who discerns properties or relations with skill and readiness; a connoisseur; an expert; a critic. [1913 Webster]

A man who is no judge of law may be a good judge of poetry, or eloquence, or of the merits of a painting. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

3. A person appointed to decide in a trial of skill, speed, etc., between two or more parties; an umpire; as, a judge in a horse race. [1913 Webster]

4. (Jewish Hist.) One of the supreme magistrates, with both civil and military powers, who governed Israel for more than four hundred years. [1913 Webster]

5. pl. The title of the seventh book of the Old Testament; the Book of Judges. [1913 Webster]

{Judge Advocate} (Mil. & Nav.), a person appointed to act as prosecutor at a court-martial; he acts as the representative of the government, as the responsible adviser of the court, and also, to a certain extent, as counsel for the accused, when he has no other counsel.

{Judge-Advocate General}, in the United States, the title of two officers, one attached to the War Department and having the rank of brigadier general, the other attached to the Navy Department and having the rank of colonel of marines or captain in the navy. The first is chief of the Bureau of Military Justice of the army, the other performs a similar duty for the navy. In England, the designation of a member of the ministry who is the legal adviser of the secretary of state for war, and supreme judge of the proceedings of courts-martial.

Syn: {Judge}, {Umpire}, {Arbitrator}, {Referee}.

Usage: A judge, in the legal sense, is a magistrate appointed to determine questions of law. An umpire is a person selected to decide between two or more who contend for a prize. An arbitrator is one chosen to allot to two contestants their portion of a claim, usually on grounds of equity and common sense. A referee is one to whom a case is referred for final adjustment. Arbitrations and references are sometimes voluntary, sometimes appointed by a court. [1913 Webster]