judges

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of judge.

   Two senior judges dissented from the majority opinion.

   The judges deliberated for hours before announcing the winner.

   Note

   One plural serves every kind of judge: the officials who preside over trials, the panel scoring a contest, and anyone who weighs something up and forms a view. Context tells them apart. Judges who dissent belong to a courtroom, and judges who announce a winner belong to a competition. In a historical setting the word can also name the shophets, temporary leaders appointed in times of crisis in ancient Israel.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of judge.

   The committee judges each submission on originality and craft.

   A good editor judges a manuscript on its merits, not its author.

   Note

   It can take an object or stand alone: the panel judges the entries, or a retired magistrate still judges at the county show. When it means appraising, the grounds usually follow with on, as in judges a film on its pacing. Older texts may use it in senses now obsolete, meaning to condemn someone to punishment or to award something by judicial decision.

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