Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The officer in charge of money matters on board a ship or commercial aircraft.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An official charged with the keeping of accounts and the disbursing of money; specifically, an officer who keeps the accounts of a ship, and has charge of the provisions, pay, etc.: now called in the navy paymaster.
- n. In mining, the paymaster or cashier of a mine, and the official to whom notices of transfer are sent for registration in the cost-book.
Wiktionary
- n. The person responsible for handling the accounts on a ship, or for dealing with the passengers on a ship or aircraft.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Naut.) A commissioned officer in the navy who had charge of the provisions, clothing, and public moneys on shipboard; -- now called
paymaster . - n. A clerk on steam passenger vessels whose duty it is to keep the accounts of the vessels, such as the receipt of freight, tickets, etc.
- n. Colloquially, any paymaster or cashier.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an officer aboard a ship who keeps accounts and attends to the passengers' welfare
Etymologies
- Middle English, from purse, purse; see purse. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But the day before she was due to leave us, she called the purser's office for help setting up an itinerary that would get her to N. Compeuia.”
“Town, with a certain Irish purser, who is as well known as he is respected among the leviathan old negro ladies, it would be hard to find.”
“Christensen calls the purser and tells her to get all of the flight attendants out of the crew rest quarters, and he orders the relief first officers back up to the cockpit.”
“The guests at 4: 05 in the morning specifically called the purser's desk and said that he had a noise complaint.”
“Philip had decided to appoint a new official, called the purser, whose job it would be to receive all monies due to the priory, with no exceptions, and then give out to each official just what he needed.”
“I must complete with water and stores, naturally, but my purser is a capable man.”
“The purser was a sharp-faced gnome who wore his Panagra uniform as though it were a sack.”
“The Captain and the purser were the only two who did gamble going over, and they were very fond of poker.”
“The purser was the shadow of a man, very regular in his accounts, fond of peach-water, playing the flute, of going on shore, receiving his necessary money and taking all imaginable care of number one.”
“Eventually, by dint of zealous enquiry, I ascertained that the purser was the person charged with the assignment of berths and staterooms.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘purser’.
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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First I Look at the Purse
purse, Purse, purses, pursed, First I Look at t..., purse money, purse-crew, purse-gang, purser, pursers, coin purse, purse-seine and 39 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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Tuesday words
just the next words that come along
nasality, transignification, lapsarian, disciple, slanguage, atwitter, avast, ahoy, asleep, awake, hymnody, glissade and 573 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Archaic Occupations
Some of these professions still exist today but the word for them has changed; some (mason or boatswain, for example), are still in use but are included for their rich historical associations. Som...
yeoman, summoner, chandler, ostler, carter, chapman, slaver, mason, cordwainer, cooper, glazier, dyer and 187 more...
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...a list from a notebook...
I found several pages of words in an old notebook. By the looks of it, they were words I learnt some time ago (and subsequently wrote down) from books by Patrick O'Brian and China Mieville, two aut...
trabacaloes, jocosity, ordnance, transom, douceur, purser, nostrum, gaby, sea-lawyer, bowsprit, officious, hobnailed and 124 more...
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The Good Soldier
Words taken from The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford.
concatenation, vorticist, imagiste, auk, acquaintanceship, perforce, tapageu, jeunes, minuet, outsound, sedulous, goodheartedness and 105 more...
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Abbie's Words
salamander, victorian, pudgy, hippopotamus, fixin', pithy, decadent, scribble, hoi polloi, consternation, assiduously, engrossing and 26 more...
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Master and Commander
An Aubrey/Maturin list.
God help me.
I blame chained_bear.prize-agent, master and commander, trabacaloes, xebecs, hipped, truckling, Bakewell tart, Eccles cake, suet pudding, slop-ship, copperplate, tramontana and 57 more...
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