Definition of "masterful" []

• Given to playing the master; imperious or domineering. (adjective)
• Fit to command. (adjective)
• Revealing mastery or skill; expert: a masterful technique; masterful moviemaking. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The other was a shrewd-looking, keen-faced, sparely-built man, with somewhat aquiline nose and straight narrow forehead, not at all bad-looking or evil-looking and with an air of strong determination; in short, what one calls a masterful man."
• "He began making recordings under his own name in the mid-'80s - around the time he was diagnosed with HIV - and for the better part of the next two decades, became known as a masterful interpreter and accompanist in his own right."
• "a stern and stubborn nature that those who liked him called masterful, and that those who disliked him -- a more numerous body -- termed tyrannical."