Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A sheriff's officer, especially one who arrests debtors.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The game of tennis.
- noun See
catchpoll . - noun An implement formerly used for seizing and securing a man who would otherwise be out of reach.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete A
taxman , one who gathers taxes. - noun A sheriff’s officer, usually one who arrests
debtors . - noun historical An
implement formerly used forseizing andsecuring a man who would otherwise be out ofreach .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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- Fixed MOD decoder for unicode file name catchpole
Fileforum 2010
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KABC reports that multiple methods were attempted to draw out the kitten, but ultimately they saved the cat with a makeshift catchpole made of wire and cables.
Kitten In Pipe Rescued By Police And Firefighters In El Cajon, California (VIDEO) 2011
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'' We took it out with the catchpole and we could just hold it, '' Kreider said.
Gator Update (Pennsylvania Edition) Bill Crider 2007
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'' We took it out with the catchpole and we could just hold it, '' Kreider said.
Archive 2007-09-09 Bill Crider 2007
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The catchpole, after a diligent search, had an opportunity of executing the writ upon the defendant, who, without ceremony, broke one of his arms, fractured his skull, and belaboured him in such a manner, that he lay without sense or motion on the spot.
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The money was immediately deposited; Miss Williams gratified the two evidences with one half, and putting the other in her pocket drove borne with me, leaving the catchpole grumbling over his loss, yet pleased in the main, for having so cheaply got clear of a business that might have cost him ten times the sum, and his place to boot.
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With this view, while the bailiff conducted him to bed in another apartment, he desired the catchpole to act the part of mediator between him and the Count, and furnished him with proper instructions for that purpose.
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Here the lady thought fit to interpose, and tell the catchpole, if he had taken her word for it at first, he might have saved himself and her a great deal of trouble.
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The stronghold of the bailiff was carried by storm, the scholar set at liberty, and the delinquent catchpole borne off captive to the college, where, having no pump to put him under, they satisfied the demands of collegiate law by ducking him in an old cistern.
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And the catchpole, rather than risk his carcase, consented to discharge the debt, comforting himself with the hope of making me prisoner again.
reesetee commented on the word catchpole
1. (Obsolete) A tax-gatherer, an exactor of taxes or imposts; a (Roman) publican. 2. A petty officer of justice; a sheriff's officer or sergeant, especially a warrant officer who arrests for debt, a bum-bailiff.
February 12, 2008
Gammerstang commented on the word catchpole
(noun) - The law-officer whose business was to apprehend criminals including tax-evaders was long popularly known as the catchpole, but few remember that he obtained that designation because he originally carried with him a pole fitted by a peculiar apparatus to catch a flying offender by the neck shown here . . . The pole was about six feet in length, and the steel implement at its summit was sufficiently flexible to allow the neck to slip past the V-shaped arms and go into the collar, when the criminal was at the mercy of the officer to be pushed forward to prison or dragged behind him. A modern descendant of the catchpole device is used by some municipalities' animal control workers.
--Robert Chambers' Book of Days, 1864
January 14, 2018