Results

Definition of beadle : 1. 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.
2. 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.
3. An officer in a university, who precedes public processions of officers and students.

Synonyms:

George Beadle, George Wells Beadle

Usage examples:

• The priest, however, assisted by his beadle and by the herdsman, interrupts me, and all the more easily that I was speaking Italian. - "The Memoires of Casanova, Complete The Rare Unabridged London Edition Of 1894, plus An Unpublished Chapter of History, By Arthur Symons", Jacques Casanova de Seingalt.
• It is related that Daquin, an incomparable organist, who died in 1781, once imitated the nightingale on it so perfectly, that the beadle was sent on the roof of the church, to endeavour to discover the musical bird. - "Paris As It Was and As It Is", Francis W. Blagdon.
• Mark wondered what Canon Havelock would have done or said if a woman taken in adultery had been brought into the lecture- room by the beadle. - "The Altar Steps", Compton MacKenzie.