Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Chiefly British One who carries the verge or other emblem of authority before a scholastic, legal, or religious dignitary in a procession.
- n. Chiefly British One who takes care of the interior of a church and acts as an attendant during ceremonies.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who carries a verge, or staff of office. Especially— An officer who bears the verge, or staff of office, before a bishop, dean, canon, or other dignitary or ecclesiastic. An officer of a similar title precedes the vice-chancellor on special occasions in the English universities.
- n. An oilicial who takes care of the interior of a church, exhibits it to visitors, and assigns seats to worshipers.
- n. An inclosure; specifically, an orchard.
Wiktionary
- n. chiefly UK A lay person who takes care of the interior of a church and acts as an attendant during services, where he or she carries the verge (or virge). An usher; in major ecclesiastical landmarks, a tour guide. In the United States, the office is generally combined with that of sexton.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who carries a verge, or emblem of office.
- n. engraving An attendant upon a dignitary, as on a bishop, a dean, a justice, etc.
- n. The official who takes care of the interior of a church building.
- n. obsolete A garden or orchard.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a church officer who takes care of the interior of the building and acts as an attendant (carries the verge) during ceremonies
Examples
“What I want to know is who was the so called verger who gave you the shove.”
The Diocese of Niagara is employing bouncers « Anglican Samizdat
“The verger was a man past fifty, but there was no knowing by how many years, for he himself did not know the exact year of his birth, though he knew the day and month.”
“A verger was a sort of caretaker, she knew that much.”
“This verger was the son and the grandson of vergers.”
“` I will send for a glass of water, sir, 'said the clergyman leaving the vestry to call the verger, or clerk, ` the lady is fainting.”
“His father sent Bob and Chris cables describing the madness of the crisis: the RAF bombed his office and hit the church next door killing the verger, just one of a "series of catastrophic mistakes" that infuriated and shocked the family.”
“The vicar and verger watched, openmouthed, as the gargoyle rubbed its head.”
“He and the verger retreated into the church and locked the door.”
“The verger looked at the vicar, then nodded and smiled.”
“It hung in the air, and the vicar and verger could almost feel the dead man below straining to move it higher, but then the stone fell down again and all was quiet.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘verger’.
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phrontistery-v
from phrontistery.info
vaccary, vaccimulgence, vaccine, vacillate, vadelect, vade-mecum, vadimony, vadose, vafrous, vagient, vagile, vagility and 396 more...
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Notre Dame de Paris
From Notre Dame de Paris by good ole Victor Hugo. (Also called The Hunchback of Notre Dame.)
cuivres, diable, hawthorn, provost, epithalamium, affrighted, mendicants, vagrants, Styx, chimeras, coif, matagrabolise and 196 more...
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Awesome Words, Part 1: Less Common
These are words that I have learnt over the years and want to remember
epithalamium, hustings, verger, atheling, moue, pendulous, pendragon, funicular, pericope, fettle, eleemosynary, moot and 160 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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Rilakkuma's list
The Velvetine Ruffians
gamine, waif, ruffian, villain, rake, libertine, velvetine, luminary, nom de plume, street urchin, epicurean, eventide and 256 more...
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Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
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Distinctly British
Mostly but not limited to slang and some cockney guffy wibble
haberdashery, coventry, knackered, cack-handed, bate, bimble, blag, boffin, bonce, brolly, busk, cack and 71 more...
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Of the Church
Ohhh boy.
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