beadle

¹ American  

[beed-l] / ˈbid l /

noun

1. a parish officer having various subordinate duties, as keeping order during services, waiting on the rector, etc.

2. sexton.

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Beadle ² American  

[beed-l] / ˈbid l /

noun

1. George Wells, 1903–1989, U.S. biologist and educator: Nobel Prize in Medicine 1958.

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beadle ¹ British  

/ ˈbiːdəl /

noun

1. (formerly, in the Church of England) a minor parish official who acted as an usher and kept order

2. (in Scotland) a church official attending on the minister

3. Judaism a synagogue attendant See also shammes

4. an official in certain British universities and other institutions

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Beadle ² British  

/ ˈbiːdəl /

noun

1. George Wells . 1903–89, US biologist, who shared the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine in 1958 for his work in genetics

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Other Word Forms

• beadleship noun
• subbeadle noun
• underbeadle noun

Etymology

Origin of beadle

before 1000; Middle English bedel, dial. (SE) variant of bidel, Old English bydel apparitor, herald (cognate with German Büttel ), equivalent to bud- (weak stem of bēodan to command) + -il noun suffix

Explanation

A beadle is a church leader. Often, a beadle serves as an usher or manages charities for the church. The noun beadle isn't used very often in American English, though it's still a fairly common term in Britain, where beadles hold symbolic or ceremonial jobs in parishes or at universities. Perhaps the most famous fictional beadle is found in Charles Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist," the cruel Mr. Bumble. Beadle comes from an Old English root word, bydel, which means "a person who makes a proclamation."

Example Sentences

Mr. Bumble, the workhouse beadle, asks gleefully, in six-eight rhythm.

From New York Times • May 4, 2023

Its surprise benefactor was the House, which earlier had played the beadle.

From Time Magazine Archive

Smug, self-righteous, disagreeable, he is the beadle in the orphan asylum at which Oliver disgraced himself by asking for "more."

From Time Magazine Archive

Last week they caught a hitherto respected layman�gentle, white-mustached Henri Gotti, beadle of Sacr� Coeur, who wore his plumed hat and carried his massive staff in parish processions.

From Time Magazine Archive

The coroner, in Mr. Wopsle’s hands, became Timon of Athens; the beadle, Coriolanus.

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens