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/bˈidəl/ Listen

noun

Beadle n.

A messenger or crier of a court; a servitor; one who cites or bids persons to appear and answer; called also an apparitor or summoner.

An officer in a university, who precedes public processions of officers and students. (Eng.) Note: In this sense the archaic spellings bedel (Oxford) and bedell (Cambridge) are preserved.

An inferior parish officer in England having a variety of duties, as the preservation of order in church service, the chastisement of petty offenders, etc.

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Etymology of 'Beadle'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Beadle" Quotes from Famous Books

... Webbe, the husband of his wife's sister Agnes, made him overseer of his will; in 1575 he bought two houses in Stratford, one of them doubtless the alleged birthplace in Henley Street; in 1576 he contributed twelvepence to the beadle's salary. But after Michaelmas 1572 he took a less active part in municipal affairs; he grew irregular in his attendance at the council meetings, and signs were soon apparent that his luck had turned. In 1578 he was unable to pay, with his colleagues, either the sum ...

— A Life of William Shakespeare - with portraits and facsimiles • Sidney Lee

... passing before him during these last days, and the coming of the smart church-officer for the psalms and hymns for the morrow awoke in the Reverend Fergus Morrison a desire to know about "John," the wonderful beadle of old times, to whose enlarged duties his late spruce visitor had succeeded. He smiled fitfully as he brooded over old things and old times; and when his aunt came in from washing up the dinner dishes, he asked concerning "John." He ...

— Bog-Myrtle and Peat - Tales Chiefly Of Galloway Gathered From The Years 1889 To 1895 • S.R. Crockett

... at last," rejoined Nicholas. "I can take breath now the old hell-cat is gone. But she shall not escape us. Keep an eye upon her, while I see if Simon Sparshot, the beadle, be within the churchyard, and if so he shall take her into custody, and lock her ...

— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth

... Getting up again was quite as difficult; and I don't think we ever attained the end of the Litany without my dropping my great red Prayer-Book—not the thirtieth-of-January one, but another affected to my especial use—with a Clang. On such occasions the pew-door would open, and the Beadle enter. He always picked up the book, and gave it me with a low bow; but he never omitted to tell me, in a deadly whisper, that if I had been one of Lady Viellcastel's boys, he'd skin ...

— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 of 3 • George Augustus Sala

... I might go and dip my head in," said poor little Tom. "It must be as good as putting it under the town-pump; and there is no beadle here to drive ...

— The Water-Babies - A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby • Charles Kingsley

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