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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A public clerk or secretary, especially in ancient times.
  2. n. A professional copyist of manuscripts and documents.
  3. n. A writer or journalist.
  4. n. See scriber.
  5. v. To mark with a scriber.
  6. v. To write or inscribe.
  7. v. To work as a scribe.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To write; mark; record.
  2. Specifically.
  3. To mark, as wood, metal, bricks, etc., by scoring with a sharp point, as an awl, a scribe or scriber, or a pair of compasses. Hence To fit closely to another piece or part, as one piece of wood in furniture-making or Joiners' work to another of irregular or uneven form.
  4. To write.
  5. n. One who writes; a writer; a penman; especially, one skilled in penmanship.
  6. n. An official or public writer; a secretary; an amanuensis; a notary; a copyist.
  7. n. In Scripture usage:
  8. n. One whose duty it was to keep the official records of the Jewish nation, or to act as the private secretary of some distinguished person (Esther iii. 12).
  9. n. One of a body of men who constituted the theologians and jurists of the Jewish nation in the time of Christ. Their function was a threefold one—to develop the law, both written and traditional, to teach it to their pupils, and to administer it as learned interpreters in the courts of justice.
  10. n. A pointed instrument used to mark lines on wood, metal, bricks, etc., to serve as a guide in sawing, cutting, etc. Specifically

Wiktionary

  1. n. One who writes; a draughtsman; a writer for another; especially, an official or public writer; an amanuensis or secretary; a notary; a copyist.
  2. n. A writer and doctor of the law; one skilled in the law and traditions; one who read and explained the law to the people.
  3. n. A very sharp, steel drawing implement used in engraving and etching, a scriber.
  4. n. A writer, especially a journalist.
  5. v. To write.
  6. v. To record.
  7. v. To write or draw with a scribe.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. One who writes; a draughtsman; a writer for another; especially, an offical or public writer; an amanuensis or secretary; a notary; a copyist.
  2. n. A writer and doctor of the law; one skilled in the law and traditions; one who read and explained the law to the people.
  3. v. To write, engrave, or mark upon; to inscribe.
  4. v. To cut (anything) in such a way as to fit closely to a somewhat irregular surface, as a baseboard to a floor which is out of level, a board to the curves of a molding, or the like; -- so called because the workman marks, or scribes, with the compasses the line that he afterwards cuts.
  5. v. To score or mark with compasses or a scribing iron.
  6. v. To make a mark.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. informal terms for journalists
  2. n. French playwright (1791-1861)
  3. v. score a line on with a pointed instrument, as in metalworking
  4. n. a sharp-pointed awl for marking wood or metal to be cut
  5. n. someone employed to make written copies of documents and manuscripts

Etymologies

  1. Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin scrība, from Latin, keeper of accounts, secretary, from scrībere, to write; see skrībh- in Indo-European roots.

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‘scribe’ has been looked up 1517 times, loved by 1 person, added to 29 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 10.