cutcherry

Noun

cutcherry (plural cutcherries)

1. An administration office in India.
   • The cutcherry clerks and the police are with him everywhere; higher native officials are often on his side.1914, George Robert Aberigh-Mackay, Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series
   • He went to the cutcherry and enrolled himself as a muktear (attorney) and soon the litigants and the magistrates found out how clever he was and he acquired a big practice.1909, Cecil Henry Bompas, Folklore of the Santal Parganas
2. (India) A hall used for business, political, or social assemblies, such as a magistrate's court or a building housing a public agency.
   • I walked through the ruins of the Fort of Bangalore ... it is not without some degree of magnificence. On the upper storey it contains four halls, each comprising two balconies of state for the prince, and each balcony faces a different Cutchery, or court for giving audience. No person, except a...1807, Francis Buchanan, A Journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Cananara and Malabar, London
3. Kaempferia galanga, a plant resembling ginger.