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.
Millsap, 32, who can trace her ancestry to the Pilgrims, is the first woman named sexton in the church’s nearly 300-year history.
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
Lance was the church sexton; she held the keys.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 25, 2015
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’s just leaving every time I arrive,” Sexton said, laughing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
When guard Collin Sexton, another new Laker, was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018, James left and signed with the Lakers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 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
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
One of the Indians espied a set of artificial teeth when one of our men, Horace Sexton, laughed, exposing the gold clasps as he did so.
From Narrative of the March of Co. A, Engineers from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Fort Bridger, Utah, and Return May 6 to October 3, 1858 by Seville, William P.
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.
