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.
One of the people who hung the lanterns was Robert Newman, the sexton at that time.
From Seattle Times • May 13, 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
“He did his job as a sexton very well. He was a very kind person,” said Florini.
From Reuters • Oct. 29, 2020
When in London, some years ago, I went to the sexton of a churchyard and asked him if I could go among the graves at 12 o’clock at night.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
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.
