colporteur
Americannoun
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colporteurs
plural
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a person who travels to sell or publicize Bibles, religious tracts, etc.
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a peddler of books.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of colporteur
1790–1800; < French, equivalent to colport ( er ) ( see colportage) + -eur -eur
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.
See Examples For:
A colporteur was reading the parable of the Prodigal Son in a Paris cafe much frequented by North African workmen.
From Time Magazine Archive
And the colporteur helps Vincent find permanent lodging with a farming family in Wasmes, the community he's serving.
From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman
“I take but the proper price,” answered the colporteur, returning most of them to him.
From Count Ulrich of Lindburg A Tale of the Reformation in Germany by William Henry Giles Kingston
He then became a colporteur of religious books, when he suffered much from his friends, yet lived so economically that he managed to save sufficient money to enable him to study for the ministry.
From Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ by B.D.
I am the possessor of the MS. of Borrow’s Gypsies of Spain, written partly in a Spanish notebook as he moved about Spain in his colporteur days.
From The Life of George Borrow by Clement K. Shorter
But mostly the word is spread by the Society's volunteer workers and colporteurs, hawkers of Holy Writ who carry Bibles, pamphlets and records by donkey and jeep, camel and subway in 123 different countries.
From Time Magazine Archive
By far, the larger part of this total circulation is distributed by sale to individuals, through colporteurs, pastors, mission workers and others.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some facts: Total number of Bibles, New Testaments and portions of Scripture distributed last year: 11,888,226, of which 7,604.625 copies were sold by the colporteurs.
From Time Magazine Archive
A large part of the Bible has been translated into Persian and very widely circulated through the adjacent country by means of colporteurs of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
From Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume I (of 2) Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a Visit to the Nestorian Rayahs by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird
It's a pity you couldn't have six months even at Laval—but, of course, Sabrevois and the long procession of colporteurs is more in your line.
From Ringfield A Novel by S. Frances (Susie Frances) Harrison
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.
