pewholder

[ pyoo-hohl-der ]

noun

1. a person who rents or owns a pew.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pewholder¹

First recorded in 1835–45; pew + holder

Example Sentences

By placing anything offensive about his pew, he may be liable for maintaining a nuisance, and such offensive thing may be removed; but, as far as possible, it must be removed without damaging the pewholder's property.443 245.

From Project Gutenberg

Free Church, Seats, Lease.—The trustees of a free church may assign seats and forcibly remove one from a seat without authority.454 Where a pew is real estate, a pewholder may acquire the right to it by prescription in the usual way.455 Where pews are not rented and the members support the church by voluntary subscriptions, they have equal right to the occupancy of the pews.

From Project Gutenberg

The best-paying pewholder in the Reverend Samuel Reynolds' church was a Mr. Craunch, whose picture had been made by the joint efforts of the strolling artist Warmell and young Reynolds.

From Project Gutenberg

Had a Grace Darling or a Florence Nightingale been known only as a sitter or pewholder in a congregation, they might have been deemed unfit for any work requiring courage, self-sacrifice, or perseverance.

From Project Gutenberg

As these pews were either oblong or square, were both large and small, painted and unpainted, and as each pewholder could exercise his own "tast or disresing" in the kind of wood he used in the formation of his pew, as well as in the style of finish, much diversity and incongruity of course resulted.

From Project Gutenberg