Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
tide waiter en · NOUN
Pronunciation
Meanings
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(UK, historical) A customs inspector at a seaport who oversees the landing of goods from merchant vessels in order to secure payment of duties.
"Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a fish-monger and a tide-waiter."
1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:Great employments are and will be in the hands of Englishmen; nothing left for the younger sons of Irishmen, but vicarages, tidewaiters places, &c. therefore no reason to make them worse.
1726, Jonathan Swift, Reasons against the Bill for settling the Tithe of Hemp, &c. by a Modus:
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A person who watches public opinion before declaring their own.
Forms
Deriveds
tidewaitership
Relateds
tide surveyor