beadleship

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From beadle +‎ -ship.

Noun[edit]

beadleship (uncountable)

  1. The office of a beadle.
    • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “In Which the Reader, if He or She Resort to the Fifth Chapter of This Second Book Will Perceive a Contrast Not Uncommon in Matrimonial Cases”, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. [], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, [], →OCLC, page 297:
      He was degraded in their eyes; he had lost caste and station before the very paupers; he had fallen from all the height and pomp of beadleship to the lowest depth of the most snubbed hen-peckery.