beadle

¹

[beed-l]

noun

1. a parish officer having various subordinate duties, as keeping order during services, waiting on the rector, etc.

2. sexton.

Beadle

²

[beed-l]

noun

1. George Wells, 1903–1989, U.S. biologist and educator: Nobel Prize in Medicine 1958.

beadle

¹

/ ˈbiːdəl /

noun

1. (formerly, in the Church of England) a minor parish official who acted as an usher and kept order

2. (in Scotland) a church official attending on the minister

3. Judaism a synagogue attendant See also shammes

4. an official in certain British universities and other institutions

Beadle

²

/ ˈbiːdəl /

noun

1. George Wells . 1903–89, US biologist, who shared the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine in 1958 for his work in genetics

Other Word Forms

• subbeadle noun
• underbeadle noun
• beadleship noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of beadle¹

before 1000; Middle English bedel, dial. (SE) variant of bidel, Old English bydel apparitor, herald (cognate with German Büttel ), equivalent to bud- (weak stem of bēodan to command) + -il noun suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of beadle¹

Old English bydel ; related to Old High German butil bailiff

Example Sentences

And the vengeance Sweeney seeks here feels as much political — a rebellion against elites, like judges and beadles — as personal.

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Johnny knew when his own case would soon be called because he heard the Justice tell a beadle to run down to Long Wharf and tell Merchant Lyte to present himself in half an hour.

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Then Soames reappeared and plodded about like a parish beadle, backing down the steam radiator valves.

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The Sergeant-at-Arms might appoint a beadle to bridle the tongues of the everlasting talkers, and an official with a large extinguisher should make them harmless after they had bored the House for five minutes.

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The state of being, or the personality of, a beadle.

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