reg´is|ter|er

reg|is|ter «REHJ uh stuhr», verb, noun.

–v.t.

1. to write in a list or record: »

Register the names of the new members. The government patent office registers all new trademarks.

2. to have (a letter, package, or other mail) recorded in a post office, paying extra postage for special care in delivering: »

He registered the letter containing the check.

3. to indicate; record automatically: »

The thermometer registers 90 degrees.

4. to show (surprise, joy, anger, or other emotion) by the expression on one's face or by actions.

5. to cause (lines, columns, colors, or other presswork) to fit or correspond exactly in printing.

–v.i.

1. to write or have one's name written in a list or record: »

to register at a hotel. A person must register before he can vote.

2. to show surprise, joy, anger, or other emotion, by one's expression or actions.

3. (of lines, columns, colors, or other presswork) to fit or correspond exactly in printing.

–n.

1. a written or printed list or record: »

A register of attendance is kept at our school.

2. the book in which a list or record is kept: »

a hotel register. Look up his record in the register.

3. a thing that records. A cash register shows the amount of money taken in.

4. a) the range of a voice or an instrument: »

The last verse…goes as low as my register will reach (Rudyard Kipling).

b) a part of this range: »

All voices are divided into “registers”—head, middle, and chest. The average person can recognize these registers when he yodels; yodelling is deliberately crossing the breaks between head and chest registers (Winthrop Sargeant).

5. a) an opening in a wall or floor with a device to regulate the amount of heated or cooled air that passes through: »

Did you ever come into the house on a cold winter day and stand over the register of a hot-air heating system? (Beauchamp, Mayfield, and West).

b) the plate for regulating the draft in a furnace.

6. registration or registry.

7. = registrar. (Cf. ↑registrar)

8. the set of pipes of an organ stop.

9. the exact fit or correspondence of lines, columns, colors, or other presswork, in printing.

10. the exact adjustment of the focus in a camera.

11. a customs document declaring the nationality of a ship.

12. a storage device in which the arithmetic unof a computer stores data temporarily.

╂[< Medieval Latin registrum, alteration of Late Latin regesta, -ōrum list, (originally) things transcribed < Latin regerere to record < re- back + gerere carry, bear]

–reg´is|ter|er, noun.