Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who is appointed or employed to inspect something.
  • noun A police officer ranking next below superintendent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who inspects or oversees; one whose duty it is to secure by supervision the proper performance of work of any kind, or to ascertain by examination the quality or condition of the work, or of any article offered for sale or transfer; a public officer charged with such duties: as, the inspectors of election or of police; an inspector of weights and measures. Specifically
  • noun An initiate in the mysteries of Eleusis; an epopt or seer.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who inspects, views, or oversees; one to whom the supervision of any work is committed; one who makes an official view or examination, as a military or civil officer; a superintendent; a supervisor; an overseer.
  • noun A police officer, typically holding a rank one below superintendent, and in some cases in charge of several precincts.
  • noun (Mil.) a staff officer of an army, whose duties are those of inspection, and embrace everything relative to organization, recruiting, discharge, administration, accountability for money and property, instruction, police, and discipline.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a person employed to inspect something
  • noun law enforcement a police officer ranking below superintendent

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a high ranking police officer
  • noun an investigator who observes carefully

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin in- + spectāre, to look.

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