an official of a church charged with taking care of the edifice and its contents, ringing the bell, etc., and sometimes with burying the dead.
an official who maintains a synagogue and its religious articles, chants the designated portion of the Torah on prescribed days, and assists the cantor in conducting services on festivals.
a person employed to act as caretaker of a church and its contents and graveyard, and often also as bell-ringer, gravedigger, etc
another name for the burying beetle
1275–1325; Middle English sexteyn, sekesteyn, syncopated variant of segerstane, secristeyn < Anglo-French segerstaine sacristan
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He then moved to Portland, Oregon, where he worked as a maintenance worker or sexton at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 23, 2024
When she later fell pregnant, Van Gogh was accused by the village sexton of being responsible.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 14, 2022
It means I’m its chief executive officer, as well as its chief of police, tree warden and cemetery sexton, and I wind the clock in the Scotland Congregational Church.
From New York Times ● May 7, 2022
Mark Sealey digs graves for a living - although the more accurate description for his job is a sexton.
From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2022
Best of all was when there were concerts at the cathedral, because a relative was sexton there.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
He once heckled Anne Sexton at a poetry reading.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Soon after the Kessler trade Wednesday, the Lakers agreed to terms with three free agents — center Sandro Mamukelashvili, guard Quentin Grimes and guard Collin Sexton.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Sexton is described as a 63-year-old Black woman who is 5 feet 1, 114 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
Its author, Gail Crowther, has a knack for finding new angles on unhappy literary women, including Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
I have tolled my last knell, turned down my last sod, and am no longer a Sexton of the Old School.
From Dealings with the Dead, Volume I (of 2) by School, A Sexton of the Old
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.
