supervision
(s(j)uːpəˈvɪʒən)
[ad. med.L. supervīsio, -ōnem, n. of action f. supervidēre: see supervide.
The earliest recorded instance of the word is in the 1st Fo. (1623) text of Shakes. Othello iii. iii. 395, where the true reading is ‘supervisor’ (1st Qo.).]
The action or function of supervising.
1. a. General management, direction, or control; oversight, superintendence.
| 1640 Bp. Hall Episc. ii. vii. 121 Having had the speciall supervision of the whole Asian Church. 1768 Blackstone Comm. iii. iv. 46 [The chancellor] seems to have had the supervision of..charters, letters, and such other public instruments of the crown, as were authenticated in the most solemn manner. 1781 Warton Hist. Kiddington (1783) 17 An old donation, for the sustenance of a perpetual lamp to burn before the high-altar in the royal chapel at Islip, under the trust and supervision of the abbats of Westminster. 1846 McCulloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) I. 411 The central office at Somerset House..for..the general supervision and conduct of the business of registration. 1859 Musketry Instr. 99 Officers charged with the Supervision of the Musketry Training of the Troops. 1877 J. Northcote Catacombs i. v. 90 The artists..worked under ecclesiastical supervision. 1877 Black Green Past. vi, The police supervision is very strict. |
b. Special Comb.: supervision order, a court order placing a child or young person under the supervision of a local authority or a probation officer in cases of delinquency, petty crime, etc.
| [1933 Act 23 & 24 Geo. V. c. 12 §62 An order placing him..under the supervision of a probation officer, or of some other person appointed for the purpose by the court.] 1938 Act 1 & 2 Geo. VI c. 40 Supervision order in place of order committing to care of fit person. 1968 J. Lock Lady Policeman xv. 126 The juvenile court placed her under a Supervision Order and she returned home. 1980 Times Lit. Suppl. 28 Nov. 1347/3 The usual treatment [in dealing with schoolboy truancy] is to place the child under a supervision order: he is then seen by a social worker or probation officer from time to time. |
2. The action of reading through for correction; revision by a superior authority. Hist. (Cf. supervisor 3, quot. 1881.)
| 1881 N.T. (Rev. Vers.) Pref. 8 A final supervision of the whole Bible [of 1611], by selected members from Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster. |
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Add: 3. At the University of Cambridge: a. The direction and oversight of an undergraduate student's work by a tutor; tutorial instruction. b. = tutorial n. a.
| 1902 Student's Handbk. Univ. & Colleges Cambr. ix. 221 College tuition or supervision—private and informal teaching adapted to the needs of each pupil, as distinguished from formal lectures adapted to the collective needs of a class. 1935 Granta 9 Oct. 9/2 His pupils were mildly aggrieved when every morning they had to listen to lectures and supervisions in the lee of the pig-sty. 1943 G. M. Trevelyan Trinity College ix. 105 The College..began to give systematic personal instruction and supervision by means of Fellows on the College Staff. 1975 Listener 24 July 107/2 Professor O. W. Harding shared Leavis tutorials—or supervisions, as they are called at Cambridge. 1982 T. Gunn Occasions of Poetry ii. 158, I was reading English, and shared supervisions with a wonderful Manxman. |