tipstaff

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tip·staff

(tĭp′stăf′)

n. pl. tip·staves (-stāvz′, -stăvz′) or tip·staffs

1. A staff with a metal tip, carried as a sign of office.

2. An officer, such as a bailiff or constable, who carries a tipstaff.

[Alteration of tipped staff.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

tipstaff

(ˈtɪpˌstɑːf)

1. (Law) a court official having miscellaneous duties, mostly concerned with the maintenance of order in court

2. a metal-tipped staff formerly used as a symbol of office

[C16 tipped staff; see tip¹, staff¹]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

tip•staff

(ˈtɪpˌstæf, -ˌstɑf)

n., pl. -staves (-ˌsteɪvz)
-staffs.

1. an attendant or crier in a court of law.

2. a staff tipped with metal, formerly carried as a badge of office, as by a constable.

3. any official who carried such a staff.

[1535–45; shortened form of earlier tipped staff]

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Noun

tipstaff - staff with a metal tip carried as a sign of office by e.g. a bailiff or constable

staff - a rod carried as a symbol

Translations

usciere

tipstaff

n (Brit Jur) → ˜ Ordnungsbeamte(r) m → /-beamtin f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in classic literature ?

The usual forms having been gone through, the body of Samuel Pickwick was soon afterwards confided to the custody of the tipstaff, to be by him taken to the warden of the Fleet Prison, and there detained until the amount of the damages and costs in the action of Bardell against Pickwick was fully paid and satisfied.

Pickwick said this, he got into the coach which had by this time arrived, followed by the tipstaff. Sam having stationed himself on the box, it rolled away.

Pickwick sat opposite the tipstaff; and the tipstaff sat with his hat between his knees, whistling a tune, and looking out of the coach window.

The tipstaff, just looking over his shoulder to see that his charge was following close at his heels, preceded Mr.

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At a door a tipstaff laid his hand roughly on the arm of Mr.

Thorndike was halted, but the first tipstaff came to his rescue.

From the friends of Spear there was a ripple of applause, which no tipstaff took it upon himself to suppress, and to the accompaniment of this, Mr.

The tipstaffs beat upon the rail, the lawyer he had interrupted uttered an indignant exclamation, Andrews came hurriedly toward him, and the young judge slowly turned his head.

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And now a tipstaff came up with a young man in his grasp, and said, "Senor governor, this youth was coming towards us, and as soon as he saw the officers of justice he turned about and ran like a deer, a sure proof that he must be some evil-doer; I ran after him, and had it not been that he stumbled and fell, I should never have caught him."

The young man went his way, and the governor continued his round, and shortly afterwards two tipstaffs came up with a man in custody, and said, "Senor governor, this person, who seems to be a man, is not so, but a woman, and not an ill-favoured one, in man's clothes." They raised two or three lanterns to her face, and by their light they distinguished the features of a woman to all appearance of the age of sixteen or a little more, with her hair gathered into a gold and green silk net, and fair as a thousand pearls.

The appearance of the tipstaffs with her brother in custody, whom one of them had overtaken as he ran away from his sister, now fully confirmed the truth of what the damsel said.

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Altogether, he had something the look of a tipstaff, or a bailiff's follower, desperately faded, but who had a notion of keeping up the appearance of a professional character, and making the best of the worst means.