bencher

English

Etymology

bench +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛnt͡ʃɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɛntʃɚ

Noun

bencher (plural benchers)

1. (Canada, law) A senior member of a law society in a Canadian province (except New Brunswick).
2. (British, obsolete, law) One of the senior governing members of an Inn of Court.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 30, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     There is Pump Court and Fountain Court, with their hydraulic apparatus, but one never heard of a bencher disporting in the fountain; and can’t but think how many a counsel learned in the law of old days might have benefited by the pump.

3. (UK, obsolete) An alderman of a corporation.
   • 1719, Elias Ashmole, The Antiquity of Berkshire:

     ten of them Aldermen, or chief Benchers

4. (obsolete) A member of a court or council.
   • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act 2, scene 1, lines 76–78:

     Come, come, you are well understood to be a perfecter / giber for the table than a necessary bencher in the / Capitol.

5. (obsolete) One who frequents the benches of a tavern; an idler.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “bencher”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)