churchwarden

church +‎ warden

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churchwarden (plural churchwardens)

1. (Britain) A lay officer of the Church of England who handles the secular affairs of the parish.
   • 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 31, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC:

     At first, not knowing any better, I used sometimes to copy a nude on the pavement. The first I did was outside St Martin's-in-the-Fields church. A fellow in black—I suppose he was a churchwarden or something—came out in a tearing rage.

2. (US) A similar functionary of the Episcopal church.
3. (UK, slang) A churchwarden pipe.
   • W. Black

     There was a small wooden table placed in front of the smoldering fire, with decanters, a jar of tobacco, and two long churchwardens.

   • 1843, John William Carleton, The Sporting Review, volume 10, page 419:

     In one part of Cockaigne an amalgamation of these two last has lately taken place; and the pleasure experienced by the parishioners of Walbrook is unbounded when smoking an alderman and churchwarden.

• churchwarden pipe
• churchwardenship
• churchwarden's pew

• vestry