Word.ws English Dictionary

administre

administre is the obsolete form of administer.

Meaning of administer

Verb

administer (third-person singular simple present administers, present participle administering, simple past and past participle administered)

  1. (transitive) To apportion out, distribute.
    • [Let zephyrs] administer their tepid, genial airs.1708, [John Philips], “Book I”, in Cyder. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 3
  2. (transitive) To manage or supervise the conduct, performance or execution of; to govern or regulate the parameters for the conduct, performance or execution of; to work in an administrative capacity.
    • For forms of government let fools contest: / Whate'er is best administered is best.1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC
  3. (intransitive) To minister (to).
    • administering to the sick
  4. To settle, as the estate of one who dies without a will, or whose will fails of an executor.
  5. To give, as an oath.
    • Swear […] to keep the oath that we administer.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
  6. (transitive) To give (a drug, to a patient), be it orally or by any other means.
    • We administered the medicine to our dog by mixing it in his food.

See all 7 meanings of administer

Forms of administre

third-person singular presentadministres
present participleadministring
past participleadministred
pastadministred

Questions about administre

What is administre the obsolete form of?
Administre is the obsolete form of administer.

Words near administre in the dictionary

  1. administratresses
  2. administratrices
  3. administratrix
  4. administratrixes
  5. administratrixship
  6. administre
  7. administred
  8. administress
  9. administresses
  10. administring
  11. administrivia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: administre (page history and authors); administer (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “administre.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/administre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.