maistre

Noun

master (plural masters)

1. Someone who has control over something or someone.
   • We are masters of the sea.1881, Benjamin Jowett, Thucydides
2. The owner of an animal or slave.
3. The captain of a merchant ship; a master mariner.
   • Master at two-and-twenty, and married at twenty-three—1896, Rudyard Kipling, The Mary Gloster

   Synonyms:

   skipper, captain

4. (dated) A male head of household.
5. Someone who employs others.
   • No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 46
6. An expert at something.
   • Mark Twain was a master of fiction.

   Synonyms:

   adept, ace, artist, buff, crackerjack, crack hand, dab, dab hand, dabster, don hand

See all 42 meanings of master