clerk-ale

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English[edit]

Noun[edit]

clerk-ale (plural clerk-ales)

  1. (UK, obsolete) A feast for the benefit of the parish clerk.
    • 1774-1781, Thomas Warton, History of English Poetry:
      That ALE is festival, appears from its sense in composition; as, amongst others, in the words Lecet-ale, Lamb-ale, Whitson-ale, Clerk-ale, and Church-ale

References[edit]

“clerk-ale”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

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