trustee
Americannoun
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trustees
plural
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a person, usually one of a body of persons, appointed to administer the affairs of a company, institution, etc.
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a person who holds the title to property for the benefit of another.
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(in New England) a garnishee.
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a trusty.
verb (used with object)
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to place in the hands of a trustee or trustees.
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(in New England) to garnish.
noun
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a person to whom the legal title to property is entrusted to hold or use for another's benefit
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a member of a board that manages the affairs and administers the funds of an institution or organization
Usage
What does trustee mean? A trustee is a person who is appointed to administer the affairs of a company or other organization. Often such an organization will have a group, or a board, of trustees. A trustee can also be a person who holds the title to a property for someone else. If you inherit millions of dollars before you reach adulthood, the will might state that an adult manages that money for you until you become an adult. That person would be the trustee of your money. Example: The board of trustees advised us against running this ad during primetime.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of trustee
Explanation
A trustee is someone who is responsible for another person's money or property. Trustees sometimes oversee investment accounts or make sure a property is being taken care of. Trustee is a legal term that's often used when people write wills or set up trusts—funds that are set aside for specific recipients, usually called beneficiaries. There's also the kind of trustee who serves on a board of trustees, a group of people responsible for overseeing a charity or business, setting up policies and goals, and approving budgets. In either case, people have put their trust in the trustee.
Vocabulary lists containing trustee
The Inheritance Games
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The Legislative Branch, Sections 1–3
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Legal Lingo, List 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
David Panzirer, a trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust, resigned in protest as a board observer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
Former supermodel Naomi Campbell won a legal challenge on Thursday to overturn a five-year ban on being a charity trustee after a panel accepted she had been the victim of deception.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
Campbell was banned from being a charity trustee for five years in 2024 after a watchdog found that Fashion for Relief funds had been spent on luxury hotels and spa treatments.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
She said that as “responsible stewards” of district resources, trustee actions “are often under scrutiny either formally or informally.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Ahead of us a prison trustee was unlocking the door to a cell.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Campbell appealed, saying one of her fellow trustees, lawyer Bianka Hellmich, forged her signature and impersonated her using a fake email address to misdirect money that was intended for the charity.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
She serves on the general advisory board at Santa Monica College and said she also served on the board of trustees at her children’s school, Palisades Charter High School, during the Palisades fire.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Trusts are usually written in very conditional, flexible language to account for all future possible scenarios and last through several generations of trustees and beneficiaries.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
The law that created the center, he said, makes no distinction between the powers of different trustees, and it doesn’t permit the board to discriminate between them on powers, including the right to vote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
And the trustees had not been glimpsed all afternoon.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
It marked a stark change from April 2016, when the university’s board of trusteed voted to keep the former president’s name on campus buildings and programs.
From Slate ● Jun. 27, 2020
The estate belongs not to him, is trusteed to his son John.
From Time Magazine Archive
"We trusteed and trusteed and trusteed," reported the President after the board meeting.
From Time Magazine Archive
The National Association of Manufacturers notes that scandals have centered in labor and jointly controlled welfare funds, insists that trusteed company pension plans should be left alone.
From Time Magazine Archive
According to President Batten & friends this right belongs to N. W. Ayer, the corporation, as owner of 117,000 trusteed shares.
From Time Magazine Archive
I know that I registered a vow that I would never again be trustee of anything without trusteeing it in fact.
From The Making of an American by Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis
She informed the executors that she wished to make over half her property to the old man, trusteeing it so that it should descend to his nephew.
From Overland by J. W. (John William) De Forest
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
