5 uses
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Definition
to be in charge; or to head; or to be the chairperson — especially of a formal meeting or ceremony
- Down by the depot, the postmistress, a gaunt woman who wears a rawhide jacket and denims and cowboy boots, presides over a falling-apart post office.1 — Last To See Them Alive (1% in)
- "Yes, it's a disgrace," agrees the caustic, some-what original, and entirely imposing lady who presides over this "But the stamps work, don't they?1 — Last To See Them Alive (91% in)
- And yet this was at least a partially inaccurate impression, for now and again the prisoner glimpsed him as he paused to talk to other men, joke with them and laugh, and then he seemed carefree, jovial, generous: "The kind of person who might see the human side"-an important attribute, for the man was Roland H. Tate, Judge of the 32nd Judicial District, the jurist who would preside at the trial of the State of Kansas versus Smith and Hickock.4 — The Corner (15% in)
- The presiding judge upheld the M'Naghten Rule, and the jury gave the state the death penalty it demanded.4 — The Corner (72% in)
- Responding to questions relevant to his supposed intimacy with Mr. Clutter, the judge said, "He [Clutter] was once a litigant in this court, a case over which I presided, a damage action involving an airplane falling on his property; he was suing for damages to-I believe some fruit trees.4 — The Corner (83% in)
There are no more uses of "preside" in In Cold Blood.
Typical Usage
(best examples)