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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Chiefly British A lawyer admitted to plead at the bar in the superior courts.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A counselor or an advocate learned in the law, admitted to plead at the bar in protection and defense of clients: called in full a barrister at law. The term is more especially used in England and Ireland, the corresponding term in Scotland being advocate and in the United States counselor at law. In England barristers alone are admitted to plead in the superior courts. They must previously have belonged to one of the inns of court, and are divided into utter or outer barristers, who plead without the bar, and queen's (or king's) counsel or serjeants at law, who plead within the bar.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A lawyer with the right to speak and argue as an advocate in higher lawcourts.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Counselor at law; a counsel admitted to plead at the bar, and undertake the public trial of causes, as distinguished from an attorney or solicitor. See attorney.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a British or Canadian lawyer who speaks in the higher courts of law on behalf of either the defense or prosecution

Etymologies

  1. Probably blend of bar1 and obsolete legister, legist; see legist.

Examples

  • “I'm writing from Nigeria -- not with an email that uses the word "barrister" and attempts to scam you out of thousands of your hard-earned dollars -- but rather as a visitor to this country that regularly turns up as a punch line on late night TV.”

    The Huffington Post: Tamar Abrams: Abuja, Nigeria: Happy to Leave

  • “He is what they call a barrister, with nothing to do.”

    Our Mutual Friend

  • “Although the word barrister is not used in the USA, all lawyers in America have to be members of the “bar” and to register with the Bar Association in order to practice.”

    Attorney, Lawyer, Barrister, Solicitor and Notary (English)

  • “In Pickwick Papers we read about a certain barrister who was described as a promising young man of about forty.”

    The Newsprint Riddle

  • “Lord Mansfield whenever a barrister pronounced a Latin word with a false quantity.”

    A Book About Lawyers

  • “So likening you to one of them - as opposed to a "barrister" - could presumably be argued to be incapable of carrying a defamatory meaning.”

    My First 'Hate' Email: A 'Chiropractic Doctor' Writes

  • “He quoted Lord Denning that in the dictionary for example the word barrister comes directly after bankrupt and just before bastard.”

    Chinalyst - China blogs in English

  • “I heard of one case here in England (unreported, the barrister was a friend-of-a-friend) where a lorry driver who went through a red light and hit a cyclist was held not to be liable because the lorry driver's barrister persuaded the judge that riding a bicycle through Manchester city centre was so recklessly foolhardy that the cyclist was "volens" as to the risk ...”

    Define That Term #207

  • “Mandaric, the current Sheffield Wednesday owner, has suffered stress, high blood pressure and sleepless nights in the four years of investigation and trial, waking up at 2.30am with the cases churning in his mind, then, often, calling his barrister, Lord Macdonald QC.”

    The Guardian: Milan Mandaric: 'I would be lying if I said it isn't hurting me'

  • “It is surprisingly engaging and I find that he holds my attention to the very end, but then as I remind myself, as a barrister, that is exactly what he has spent the larger part of his life doing....”

    A question of etiquette, Dave Eggers' new offering and the sins of the son...

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‘barrister’ has been looked up 1190 times, added to 18 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 11.