A minor parish official who serves a ceremonial function.

Roget 263: stopper, stopple; plug, cork, bung, spike, spill, stopcock, tap; rammer^†; ram, ramrod; piston; stop-gap; wadding, stuffing, padding, stopping, dossil^†, pledget^†, tompion^†, tourniquet.    cover etc. 223; valve, vent peg, spigot, slide valve.    janitor, doorkeeper, porter, warder, beadle, cerberus, ostiary^†.    ... show more

Roget 965: jurisdiction, judicature, administration of justice, soc; executive, commission of the peace; magistracy etc. (authority) 737.    judge etc. 967; tribunal etc. 966; municipality, corporation, bailiwick, shrievalty [Brit.]; lord lieutenant, sheriff, shire reeve, shrieve^†, constable; selectman; police, police force, the fuzz [Sarc.]; constabulary, bumbledom^†, gendarmerie [Fr.].    officer, bailiff, tipstaff, bum-bailiff, catchpoll, beadle; policeman, cop [Coll.], police constable, police sergeant; sbirro^†, alguazil^†, gendarme, kavass^†, lictor^†, mace bearer, huissier [Fr.], bedel^†; tithingman^†.    press gang; exciseman^†, gauger, gager^†, customhouse officer, douanier [Fr.].    coroner, edile^†, aedile^†, portreeve^†, paritor^†; posse comitatus [Lat.].    bureau, cutcherry^†, department, secretariat.    [extension of jurisdiction] long arm of the law, extradition.    ... show more

Roget 996: clergy, clericals, ministry, priesthood, presbytery, the cloth, the desk.    clergyman, divine, ecclesiastic, churchman, priest, presbyter, hierophant^†, pastor, shepherd, minister; father, father in Christ; padre, abbe, cure; patriarch; reverend; black coat; confessor.    dignitaries of the church; ecclesiarch^†, hierarch^†; ebdomarius [Lat.]; eminence, reverence, elder, primate, metropolitan, archbishop, bishop, prelate, diocesan, suffragan^†, dean, subdean^†, archdeacon, prebendary, canon, rural dean, rector, parson, vicar, perpetual curate, residentiary^†, beneficiary, incumbent, chaplain, curate; deacon, deaconess; preacher, reader, lecturer; capitular^†; missionary, propagandist, Jesuit, revivalist, field preacher.    churchwarden, sidesman^†; clerk, precentor^†, choir; almoner, suisse [Fr.], verger, beadle, sexton, sacristan; acolyth^†, acolothyst^†, acolyte, altar boy; chorister.    [Roman Catholic priesthood] Pope, Papa, pontiff, high priest, cardinal; ancient flamen^†, flamen^†; confessor, penitentiary; spiritual director.    cenobite, conventual, abbot, prior, monk, friar, lay brother, beadsman^†, mendicant, pilgrim, palmer; canon regular, canon secular; Franciscan, Friars minor, Minorites; Observant, Capuchin, Dominican, Carmelite; Augustinian^†; Gilbertine; Austin Friars^†, Black Friars, White Friars, Gray Friars, Crossed Friars, Crutched Friars; Bonhomme [Fr.], Carthusian, Benedictine^†, Cistercian, Trappist, Cluniac, Premonstatensian, Maturine; Templar, Hospitaler; Bernardine^†, Lorettine, pillarist^†, stylite^†.    abbess, prioress, canoness^†; religieuse [Fr.], nun, novice, postulant.    [Under the Jewish dispensation] prophet, priest, high priest, Levite; Rabbi, Rabbin, Rebbe; scribe.    [Mohammedan etc.] mullah, muezzin, ayatollah; ulema, imaum^†, imam, sheik; sufi; kahin^†, kassis^†; mufti, hadji, dervish; fakir, faquir^†; brahmin^†, guru, kaziaskier^†, poonghie^†, sanyasi^†; druid, bonze^†, santon^†, abdal^†, Lama, talapoin^†, caloyer^†.    ... show more

Dutch: kerkbaljuw
Polish: bedel, pedel, tercjan

United States biologist who discovered how hereditary characteristics are transmitted by genes (1903-1989).

synonyms: George Beadle, George Wells Beadle.