The AI-powered English dictionary
plural churchwardens
(Britain) A lay officer of the Church of England who handles the secular affairs of the parish. quotations examples
At first, not knowing any better, I used sometimes to copy a nude on the pavement. The first I did was outside St Martin's-in-the-Fields church. A fellow in black—I suppose he was a churchwarden or something—came out in a tearing rage.
1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXXI, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […]
(US) A similar functionary of the Episcopal church. examples
(UK, slang) A churchwarden pipe. quotations
There was a small wooden table placed in front of the smoldering fire, with decanters, a jar of tobacco, and two long churchwardens.
W. Black
In one part of Cockaigne an amalgamation of these two last has lately taken place; and the pleasure experienced by the parishioners of Walbrook is unbounded when smoking an alderman and churchwarden.
1843, John William Carleton, The Sporting Review, volume 10, page 419