Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A private instructor.
  • noun One that gives additional, special, or remedial instruction.
  • noun A teacher or teaching assistant in some universities and colleges having a rank lower than that of an instructor.
  • noun A graduate, usually a fellow, responsible for the supervision of an undergraduate at some British universities.
  • noun Law The guardian of a minor.
  • intransitive verb To act as a tutor to; instruct or teach privately.
  • intransitive verb To have the guardianship, tutelage, or care of.
  • intransitive verb To function as a tutor.
  • intransitive verb To be instructed by a tutor; study under a tutor.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To have the guardianship or care of.
  • To instruct; teach.
  • noun A guardian.
  • noun In law, the guardian of a boy or girl in pupilarity.
  • noun One who has the care of instructing another in various branches or in any branch of learning; a private instructor; also, a teacher or instructor in anything.
  • noun In Eng. universities, an officer who is specially intrusted with the care of the undergraduates of his college.
  • noun In U. S. colleges, a teacher subordinate to a professor, usually appointed for a year or a term of years.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who guards, protects, watches over, or has the care of, some person or thing.
  • noun A treasurer; a keeper.
  • noun (Civ. Law) One who has the charge of a child or pupil and his estate; a guardian.
  • noun A private or public teacher.
  • noun (Eng. Universities) An officer or member of some hall, who instructs students, and is responsible for their discipline.
  • noun (Am. Colleges) An instructor of a lower rank than a professor.
  • transitive verb To have the guardianship or care of; to teach; to instruct.
  • transitive verb To play the tutor toward; to treat with authority or severity.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who teaches another (usually called a student, learner, or tutee) in a one-on-one or small-group interaction.
  • verb transitive To instruct or teach, especially to an individual or small group.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person who gives private instruction (as in singing, acting, etc.)
  • verb act as a guardian to someone
  • verb be a tutor to someone; give individual instruction

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English tutour, from Old French, from Latin tūtor, from tūtus, variant past participle of tuērī, to guard.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English tutour, from Old French tuteur (French tuteur), from Latin tutor ("a watcher, protector, guardian"), from tuēri ("to protect"); see tuition.

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Examples

  • To every fifty children a tutor is assigned: they ramble through the country to collect specimens and observe the various formations, – excursion-trains being frequently engaged in taking them to distant localities to see for themselves hot springs, mountains, canyons, stalactites, stalagmites, &c.

    Man's Rights: or, How Would You Like It? 1870

  • If you are here in México and in a fairly large city with a University, Fergueson's advice to get a private tutor is probably the best advice of all.

    Spanish lessons 2009

  • If you are here in México and in a fairly large city with a University, Fergueson's advice to get a private tutor is probably the best advice of all.

    Spanish lessons 2009

  • An hour a week of conversation with a tutor is going to help, assuming the tutor stops and explains what you are doing wrong.

    How to talk like a native in no time 2009

  • A student whom I tutor is reading Fahrenheit 451, and reading it with him has made me wonder what the best dystopian literature for young adult and youth readers is.

    New Notes, Back to School edition Roger Sutton 2009

  • An hour a week of conversation with a tutor is going to help, assuming the tutor stops and explains what you are doing wrong.

    How to talk like a native in no time 2009

  • An hour a week of conversation with a tutor is going to help, assuming the tutor stops and explains what you are doing wrong.

    How to talk like a native in no time 2009

  • If you are here in México and in a fairly large city with a University, Fergueson's advice to get a private tutor is probably the best advice of all.

    Spanish lessons 2009

  • If you are here in México and in a fairly large city with a University, Fergueson's advice to get a private tutor is probably the best advice of all.

    Spanish lessons 2009

  • If you are here in México and in a fairly large city with a University, Fergueson's advice to get a private tutor is probably the best advice of all.

    Spanish lessons 2009

Comments

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  • "WANTED.

    A PERSON about forty Years old, and past the Vanities of Life, who is judicious, accurate, and acquainted with the most intricate Accounts. If he could be of Service in teaching a Child or two, he would be the more acceptable; good Wages will be given. Inquire at the Post Office in Williamsburg."

    Virginia Gazette (Purdie & Dixon), Dec. 10, 1772

    January 27, 2009

  • I love this: "about forty Years old, and past the Vanities of Life." :-D

    And now, for even more entertainment:

    A tutor who tutors the flute

    tried to tutor two tutees the flute.

    Said the two to the tutor,

    "It is harder to toot or

    to tutor two tutees the flute?"

    January 27, 2009