Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CENS'OR, n. [L. censor. See Cense.]

1. An officer in ancient Rome, whose business was to register the effects of the citizens, to impose taxes according to the property which each man possessed, and to inspect the manners of the citizens, with power to censure vice and immorality by inflicting a public mark of ignominy on the offender.
2. One who is empowered to examine all manuscripts and books, before they are committed to the press, and to see that they contain nothing heretical or immoral. – Encyc.
3. One who is given to censure. – Roscommon. Dryden.