circuit rider
Americannoun
-
(formerly) a minister who rode horseback from place to place to preach and perform religious ceremonies.
-
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
It was Peter Cartwright, the famous Methodist divine and circuit rider.
From Abraham Lincoln, Volume 1 (of 2) The True Story Of A Great Life by Herndon, William H.
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.
