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.
The pair grew up in Seminary, a historically Black community near the Virginia Theological Seminary, where their grandfather worked as a sexton.
From Washington Post • Apr. 30, 2023
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
The Rev. Brian Nystrom, associate priest, and Tim Schwarz, the sexton at St. John’s, tested the stained-glass windows that open out over where the new deck will be.
From Seattle Times • May 30, 2018
Later he began to wish that he could put several other questions, such as “Do you like being a sexton?" or “Are you a slave?” or even “Are you happy?"
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
