judge

1 noun (C)

1 the official in control of a court who decides how criminals should be punished: federal judge/high court judge (=a judge in a particular court)

2 someone who decides on the result of a competition: The panel of judges included several well-known writers.

3 be no judge informal to not have enough skill or knowledge to be able to give an opinion on a particular subject: I don't like this wine - not that I'm any judge of these things.

4 a good/bad judge of someone whose opinion on something is usually right or wrong: Sandra's a very good judge of character.

5 let me be the judge of that spoken used to tell someone angrily that you do not need their advice

—see also: as sober as a judge sober 1 (1) 2 verb judged, judging

1 OPINION (I, T) to form or give an opinion about someone or something after thinking carefully about all the information you know about them: It seems a good idea, but without all the facts it's hard to judge. | judge sb/sth by sth: Teachers tend to be judged by their students' exam grades. | judge sb/sth on sth: Why can't they judge me on my brains, not my looks? | judge that: I judged that Williams was a spy. | judge sb/sth (to be) sth: Their reunion was judged to be a great success. | judge who/what/how etc: Well, Sam, can you judge where they might go next? | judge sth/sb (to be) good/bad/fair etc: The headmaster was judged incompetent by school inspectors. | judge it unwise/expedient/inappropriate etc to do sth: At that point we judged it wise to leave them alone.

2 GUESS (I, T) to guess an amount, distance, height, weight etc; estimate: “How long will it take?” “It's impossible to judge.” | judge sb/sth to be sth: Trevor judged the distance to be about 30 yards. | judge how far/long/wide etc sth is: In this fog, we can't judge how far it is to the other side of the river.

3 judging by/from used to say that you are making a guess based on what you have just seen, heard or learned: Judging by the look on Adam's face, the news must have been terrible.

4 COMPETITION (I, T) to decide on the result of a competition: Who's judging the talent contest? | judge sb on sth: Competitors will be judged on speed and accuracy.

5 CRITICIZE (I, T) to form an opinion about someone, especially in an unfair or criticizing way: What right have you to judge the way they live?

6 LAW (T) to decide whether someone is guilty of a crime in court

7 It's not for me to judge spoken used to say that you do not think you have the right to give your opinion about something

8 as far as I can judge used to say that you think what you are saying is true, but you are not sure

9 don't judge a book by its cover used to say that you should not form an opinion based only on the way something looks