(UK, higher education) The head of various colleges and universities.
(UK, military slang, obsolete) A provost cell: a military cell or prison.
(US, higher education) A senior deputy administrator; a vice-president of academic affairs.
(fencing, historical) An assistant fencing master.
(historical) A constable: a medieval or early modern official charged with arresting, holding, and punishing criminals.
(historical) A steward or seneschal: a medieval agent given management of a feudal estate or charged with collecting fees; (obsolete, sometimes as ~ of Paradise or ~ of Heaven) a title of the archangel Michael.
(historical) Any manager or overseer in a medieval or early modern context.
(military) An officer of the military police, particularly provost marshal or provost sergeant.
(obsolete) A governor.
(obsolete) A reeve.
(obsolete) A ruler.
(obsolete) A viceroy.
(obsolete) The head of various Roman offices, such as prefect and praetor.
(religion) The head of various other ecclesiastical bodies, even (rare, obsolete) muezzins.
(religion) The minister of the chief Protestant church of a town or region in Germany, the Low Countries, and Scandinavia.
(religion, historical) A dean: the head of a cathedral chapter.
(religion, historical) A prior: an abbot's second-in-command.
A mayor: the chief magistrate of a town, particularly (Scotland) the head of a burgh or (historical) the former chiefs of various towns in France, Flanders, or (by extension) other Continental European countries.
verb
(UK, transitive, used in passive, obsolete, military slang) To be delivered to a provost marshal for punishment.
