noun. A judge or justice of a local or inferior court; a justice of the peace.

noun. A judge in a court having jurisdiction over the trial of misdemeanors and preliminary hearings involving felonies.

noun. A public official with the chief administrative power in a district or region.

noun. Magistracy.

noun. An administrator of the law; one who possesses jurisdiction or executive authority in matters of civil government; an executive or judicial officer holding the power of decision and disposal in regard to subjects within his cognizance: as, a king is the first magistrate of a monarchy; in the United States the President is often called the chief magistrate; the magistrates of a state or city; civil or judicial magistrates.

noun. Specifically, a minor judicial officer; a justice of the peace, or a police justice; in Scotland, a provost or a bailie of a burgh: as, to be brought before the bar of the local magistrate.

noun. In the New Testament, a Roman military governor or pretor.

noun. A person clothed with power as a public civil officer; a public civil officer invested with the executive government, or some branch of it.

noun. A judicial officer with limited authority to administer and enforce the law. A magistrate's court may have jurisdiction in civil or criminal cases, or both.

noun. a lay judge or civil authority who administers the law (especially one who conducts a court dealing with minor offenses)

"To say the _magistrate_ has this right, is using an inadequate word: it is the _society_ for which the magistrate is agent."