an official who examines books, plays, news reports, motion pictures, radio and television programs, letters, cablegrams, etc., for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds.
any person who supervises the manners or morality of others.
an adverse critic; faultfinder.
(in the ancient Roman republic) either of two officials who kept the register or census of the citizens, awarded public contracts, and supervised manners and morals.
(in early Freudian dream theory) the force that represses ideas, impulses, and feelings, and prevents them from entering consciousness in their original, undisguised forms.
verb (used with object)
to examine and act upon as a censor.
to delete (a word or passage of text) in one's capacity as a censor.
Origin of censor
1525–35; <Latin cēnsor, equivalent to cēns(ēre) to give as one's opinion, recommend, assess + -tor-tor; -sor for *-stor by analogy with derivatives from dentals, as tōnsor barber (see tonsorial)
OTHER WORDS FROM censor
cen·sor·a·ble,adjectivecen·so·ri·al[sen-sawr-ee-uhl, -sohr-], /sɛnˈsɔr i əl, -ˈsoʊr-/, cen·so·ri·an,adjectivean·ti·cen·so·ri·al,adjectivenon·cen·sored,adjective
o·ver·cen·sor,verb (used with object)pre·cen·sor,verb (used with object)re·cen·sor,verb (used with object)un·cen·sor·a·ble,adjectiveun·cen·sored,adjective
The censor can decapitate ideas which but for him might have lived forever.
Pieces of Hate|Heywood Broun
Under Speaker Carlisle, this power to censor proposals was made conspicuous through the factional war in the Democratic party.
The Cleveland Era|Henry Jones Ford
The censor produced the incriminated passage, and Kriloff was made to read it aloud.
The English in the West Indies|James Anthony Froude
The Englishman, writing to his American friend, never descends from his lofty position of censor both of great and petty morals.
James Fenimore Cooper|Thomas R. Lounsbury
British Dictionary definitions for censor
censor
/ (ˈsɛnsə) /
noun
a person authorized to examine publications, theatrical presentations, films, letters, etc, in order to suppress in whole or part those considered obscene, politically unacceptable, etc
any person who controls or suppresses the behaviour of others, usually on moral grounds
(in republican Rome) either of two senior magistrates elected to keep the list of citizens up to date, control aspects of public finance, and supervise public morals
psychoanalthe postulated factor responsible for regulating the translation of ideas and desires from the unconscious to the conscious mindSee also superego
verb(tr)
to ban or cut portions of (a publication, film, letter, etc)