paternoster

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The Lord's Prayer.
• noun One of the large beads on a rosary on which the Lord's Prayer is said.
• noun A sequence of words spoken as a prayer or a magic formula.
• noun A weighted fishing line having several jointed attachments for hooks connected by beadlike swivels.
• noun An elevator constructed of a series of doorless compartments hung on chains that move slowly and continuously, allowing passengers to step on and off at will.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The Lord's Prayer: so called from the first two words of the Latin version.
• noun One of the large beads in the rosary used by Roman Catholics in their devotions, at which, in telling their beads, they repeat the Lord's Prayer. Every eleventh bead is a paternoster.
• noun Hence, the rosary itself.
• noun An object composed of beads or of bead-like objects strung together like a rosary; specifically, a fishing-line to which hooks are attached at regular intervals, and also leaden beads or shot to sink it; also, in architecture, a kind of ornament in the shape of beads, used in baguets, astragals, etc.
• noun Profane expletives; profanity.
• To fish with a paternoster. See paternoster, 4.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The Lord's prayer, so called from the first two words of the Latin version.
• noun (Arch.) A beadlike ornament in moldings.
• noun (Angling) A line with a row of hooks and bead-shaped sinkers.
• noun (Mining) An elevator of an inclined endless traveling chain or belt bearing buckets or shelves which ascend on one side loaded, and empty themselves at the top.
• noun a chain pump; a noria.
• noun the space of time required for repeating a paternoster.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The Lord's prayer, especially in a Roman Catholic context.
• noun archaic A rosary; a string of beads used in counting the prayers said.
• noun A slow, continuously moving lift or elevator consisting of a loop of open fronted cabins running the height of a building. The moving compartment is entered at one level and left when the desired level is reached. Found in some university libraries. Named after the string of prayer beads due to their similar ararngement.
• noun archaic A patent medicine. So named because the salesman would pray the Lord's prayer over it before selling it.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a type of lift having a chain of open compartments that move continually in an endless loop so that (agile) passengers can step on or off at each floor
• noun (Roman Catholic Church) the Lord's Prayer in Latin; translates as `our father'