Word.ws English Dictionary

bedesman

bedesman is the obsolete form of beadsman.

Meaning of beadsman

Noun

beadsman (plural beadsmen)

  1. (historical) A petitioner; someone who seeks some type of favour from another, usually from a superior.
  2. A man employed in praying; especially one who prays for another.
    • Good Lord Cromwell, stand my friend: exert yourself for Thomas Howard, who is your daily beadsman, your debtor for life.2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 499
  3. (England, historical) A poor man, supported in a beadhouse, and required to pray for the soul of its founder; an almsman.
    • Whereby ye shall bind me to be […]your poor beadsman for ever unto Almighty God.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)
  4. (Scotland, historical) A public almsman; one who received alms from the king, and was expected in return to pray for the royal welfare and that of the state; a licensed beggar.

Forms of bedesman

pluralbedesmen

Questions about bedesman

What is bedesman the obsolete form of?
Bedesman is the obsolete form of beadsman.

Words near bedesman in the dictionary

  1. Bedeque and Area
  2. bederal
  3. bederals
  4. bederite
  5. bedes
  6. bedesman
  7. bedesmen
  8. bedesten
  9. bedestens
  10. bedeswoman
  11. bedeswomen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bedesman (page history and authors); beadsman (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bedesman.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bedesman. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.