administer
Formsadministers, administering, administered
- 1To manage or supervise how something is conducted or carried out, working in an administrative role.
Government agencies administer the programs that distribute federal aid.
A board of trustees administers the university's endowment.
Similarmanage, run, oversee, supervise
Note
Government is the natural home of this sense. Pope's line "Whate'er is best administered is best" (1733) sets the running of a state above arguments over its form. In territorial language the verb draws a careful line. Rongxing Guo's Territorial Disputes and Resource Management (2006) calls Snake Island "administered by Ukraine but claimed by Romania." To administer a place is to run it, which leaves open the question of who owns it.
- 2To give a drug to a patient, whether by mouth or by any other route.
Paramedics administer oxygen at the scene of an accident.
She administered the painkiller directly into a vein.
Similargive, deliver, dispense
Note
Clinical language pairs the verb with a drug as its object, and the patient follows to. The route is left open. It can be by mouth, by injection or into a vein, or as homely as medicine mixed into a dog's food. Contrast the ingestion meaning, which cares only that the drug ends up swallowed, knowingly or not.
- 3To apportion something out and distribute it among recipients.
Relief workers administer supplies across the affected region.
The fund administers grants to dozens of local schools.
Similardistribute, dispense, allocate, disburse
Note
The Latin behind every sense of the verb is administrare, "to manage, execute". It was built from ad, "to", and ministrare, "to attend, serve", which comes from minister, "servant". In this sense the serving takes the form of handing out. Its lasting collocation is justice. Macaulay writes that justice "was administered between man and man", dealt out evenly to each party in turn.
- 4To formally give an oath, as to a witness or an incoming officeholder.
Court clerks administer the oath to each witness who testifies.
The chief justice administered the oath of office to the president.
Note
An oath is the usual object, and the person who swears it is someone else. Whoever administers an oath speaks the words for another to take. The pairing is an old one. In Shakespeare's King John (1595) the speaker demands, "Swear […] to keep the oath that we administer."
- 5To give a person or animal a drug to swallow, whether by offering it openly or by deception.
Poisoners administer the toxin in food or drink to avoid detection.
The vet administered the pill by concealing it in a treat.
Note
What counts here is that the drug is taken in, whether or not the patient knows it. That is why the verb appears in accounts of poisoning as readily as in care. Macaulay writes that "a noxious drug had been administered to him." The passive keeps whoever gave the drug out of sight and leaves the victim as the one acted on.
- 6To settle and distribute the estate of a person who dies without a will, or whose will lacks an executor.
The probate court appoints an administrator to administer the estate when no valid will exists.
She administers intestate estates as part of her legal practice.
Similarsettle
Note
Probate law keeps this sense for a particular gap. Either someone dies with no will, or the will names no executor able to act. Whoever then settles the estate administers it rather than executes it. The choice of verb records how the estate came into that person's hands, not what is done with it once it arrives.
- 7To attend to and care for the needs of another person.
Volunteers administer to families displaced by the flood.
The chaplain administered to the dying soldier's spiritual needs.
Oppositeneglect
Note
Unlike its siblings, this sense takes no direct object. The person or thing served follows to, as in administering to the sick. Joseph Addison has a fountain that "administers to the pleasure as well as the plenty of the place" (1712). In meaning it is simply minister to, and it stays closest to the Latin servant behind the "distribute" meaning.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English administren, borrowed via Old French aminister from Latin administrare ("to manage, execute"), which combines ad ("to") with ministrare ("to attend, serve"), from minister ("servant").