circuit rider
Americannoun
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(formerly) a minister who rode horseback from place to place to preach and perform religious ceremonies.
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someone, as a public official or a nurse, who travels throughout a given territory to provide services.
noun
Etymology
Origin of circuit rider
An Americanism dating back to 1830–40
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ann Tapscott, the great-great-great granddaughter of the Rev. Peter Cartwright, the evangelist and Methodist circuit rider, lamented the loss of small congregations, like New Salem.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 4, 2020
“The circuit rider in a lot of ways was lost,” Jason Felici said.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 23, 2019
By the time he was eighteen, he was a circuit rider, an itinerant preacher hitchhiking from church to church.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 4, 2016
The book finds its own proper music when Harrigan writes about Lincoln as a circuit rider.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 25, 2016
The circuit rider is not only a priest to his people, but he is a good deal of a mendicant besides.
From A Circuit Rider's Wife by Harris, Corra
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
