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sexton - 7 dictionary results

sex⋅ton

  [sek-stuhn]
Use sexton in a Sentence
–noun
1. an official of a church charged with taking care of the edifice and its contents, ringing the bell, etc., and sometimes with burying the dead.
2. an official who maintains a synagogue and its religious articles, chants the designated portion of the Torah on prescribed days, and assists the cantor in conducting services on festivals.
Origin:
1275–1325; ME sexteyn, sekesteyn, syncopated var. of segerstane, secristeyn < AF segerstaine sacristan

Related forms:
sex⋅ton⋅ship, noun

Sex⋅ton

  [sek-stuhn]
–noun
Anne (Harvey), 1928–74, U.S. poet.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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sex·ton   (sěk'stən)   
n.  An employee or officer of a church who is responsible for the care and upkeep of church property and sometimes for ringing bells and digging graves.

[Middle English sextein, from Anglo-Latin sextānus, probably from Medieval Latin secristānus, sacristan, variant of sacristānus; see sacristan.]
Sex·ton   (sěk'stən)   
American poet whose works, including the collections Live or Die (1966) and The Death Notebooks (1974), document her struggle with mental illness and her search for faith.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Sexton

Sex"ton\, n. [OE. sextein, contr. fr. sacristan.] An under officer of a church, whose business is to take care of the church building and the vessels, vestments, etc., belonging to the church, to attend on the officiating clergyman, and to perform other duties pertaining to the church, such as to dig graves, ring the bell, etc.

Sexton beetle (Zo["o]l.), a burying beetle.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : sexton
Spanish: sacristán,
German: der Künstler,
Japanese: 寺男
More Translations »

sexton 
c.1303, sekesteyn, "person in charge of the sacred objects of a church," from O.Fr. segrestien, from M.L. sacristanus (see sacristan). Sense of "custodian of a church" first recorded 1582.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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sexton

church custodian charged with keeping the church and parish buildings prepared for meetings, caring for church equipment, and performing related minor duties such as ringing the bell and digging graves. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with "sacristan," denoting a church officer who is specifically in charge of the sacristy and its sacred utensils and vestments but who also may perform the duties of sexton.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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