[ noun ] a chief officer or chief magistrate <noun.person> the prefect of Paris police
Prefect \Pre"fect\, n. [L. praefectus, fr. praefectus, p. p. of praeficere to set over; prae before + facere to make: cf. F. pr['e]fet.] 1. A Roman officer who controlled or superintended a particular command, charge, department, etc.; as, the prefect of the aqueducts; the prefect of a camp, of a fleet, of the city guard, of provisions; the pretorian prefect, who was commander of the troops guarding the emperor's person.
2. A superintendent of a department who has control of its police establishment, together with extensive powers of municipal regulation. [France] --Brande & C.
3. In the Greek and Roman Catholic churches, a title of certain dignitaries below the rank of bishop.
{Apostolic prefect} (R. C. Ch.), the head of a mission, not of episcopal rank. --Shipley.
Fiona is a Sunday school teacher and school prefect who hopes to study law, while Katharine is a music and drama buff who wants to be a doctor.
He added that to Fascists, the Bologna bombing was "morally unacceptable and idealogically inconceivable." There was no immediate response from the prefect, Bruno Ciccone.
In his petition to the city prefect, or Interior Ministry representative, Vittorio Mussolini asked for the removal of the word "Fascist" from descriptions of the attack on plaques at the train station and the city hall of Bologna.