[ad. med.L. supervīsio, -ōnem, n. of action f. supervidēre: see SUPERVIDE.
The earliest recorded instance of the word is in the 1st Fo. (1623), text of Shaks., Othello, III. iii. 395, where the true reading is ‘supervisor’ (1st Qo.).]
The action or function of supervising.
1. General management, direction or control; oversight, superintendence.
1640. Bp. Hall, Episc., II. vii. 121. Having had the speciall supervision of the whole Asian Church.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. iv. 46. [The chancellor] seems to have had the supervision of … charters, letters, and such other public instruments of the crown, as were authenticated in the most solemn manner.
1781. Warton, Hist. Kiddington (1783), 17. An old donation, for the sustenance of a perpetual lamp to burn before the high-altar in the royal chapel at Islip, under the trust and supervision of the abbats of Westminster.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 411. The central office at Somerset House … for … the general supervision and conduct of the business of registration.
1859. Musketry Instr., 99. Officers charged with the Supervision of the Musketry Training of the Troops.
1877. J. Northcote, Catacombs, I. v. 90. The artists … worked under ecclesiastical supervision.
1877. Black, Green Past., vi. The police supervision is very strict.
2. The action of reading through for correction; revision by a superior authority. Hist. (Cf. SUPERVISOR 3, quot. 1881.)
1881. N. T. (Rev. Vers.), Pref. 8. A final supervision of the whole Bible [of 1611], by selected members from Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster.
