Definition of "proconsul" [pro•con•sul]

• A provincial governor of consular rank in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. (noun)
• A high administrator in one of the modern colonial empires. (noun)

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.

• "He said he supposed the proconsul was the friend of Caligula, who often visited Agrippa; and expressed a surmise that he himself might be exiled, or that perhaps his throat would be cut."
• "Florinus may have belonged to his suite, and Irenæus in after years might well call the proconsul's retinue, in"
• "The proconsul was a prudent man, and he called for Barnabas and Saul and wished to hear the word of God."