Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - judge

~1 n 1 the official in control of a court who decides how criminals should be punished  (federal judge/high court judge (=a judge in a particular court)) 2 someone who decides on the result of a competition  (The panel of judges included several well-known writers.) 3 be no judge informal to not have enough skill or knowledge to be able to give an opinion on a particular subject  (I don't like this wine - not that I'm any judge of these things.) 4 a good/bad judge of someone whose opinion on something is usually right or wrong  (Sandra's a very good judge of character.) 5 let me be the judge of that spoken used to tell someone angrily that you do not need their advice  (- see also as sober as a judge sober1 (1)) ~2 v judged, judging 1 »OPINION« to form or give an opinion about someone or something after thinking carefully about all the information you know about them  (It seems a good idea, but without all the facts it's hard to judge. | judge sb/sth by sth)  (Teachers tend to be judged by their students' exam grades. | judge sb/sth on sth)  (Why can't they judge me on my brains, not my looks? | judge that)  (I judged that Williams was a spy. | judge sb/sth (to be) sth)  (Their reunion was judged to be a great success. | judge who/what/how etc)  (Well, Sam, can you judge where they might go next? | judge sth/sb (to be) good/bad/fair etc)  (The headmaster was judged incompetent by school inspectors. | judge it unwise/expedient/inappropriate etc to do sth)  (At that point we judged it wise to leave them alone.) 2 »GUESS« to guess an amount, distance, height, weight etc; estimate  ("How long will it take?" "It's impossible to judge." | judge sb/sth to be sth)  (Trevor judged the distance to be about 30 yards. | judge how far/long/wide etc sth is)  (In this fog, we can't judge how far it is to the other side of the river.) 3 judging by/from used to say that you are making a guess based on what you have just seen, heard or learned  (Judging by the look on Adam's face, the news must have been terrible.) 4 »COMPETITION« to decide on the result of a competition  (Who's judging the talent contest? | judge sb on sth)  (Competitors will be judged on speed and accuracy.) 5 »CRITICIZE« to form an opinion about someone, especially in an unfair or criticizing way  (What right have you to judge the way they live?) 6 »LAW« to decide whether someone is guilty of a crime in court 7 It's not for me to judge spoken used to say that you do not think you have the right to give your opinion about something 8 as far as I can judge used to say that you think what you are saying is true, but you are not sure 9 don't judge a book by its cover used to say that you should not form an opinion based only on the way something looks