Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One that sits on a bench.
- noun Chiefly British A member of the inner or higher bar who acts as a governor of one of the Inns of Court.
- noun One, such as a magistrate, who occupies a bench.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In England, one of the senior members of an inn of court, who have the government of the society.
- noun One who occupies an official bench; a judge; sometimes, specifically, a municipal or local magistrate; an alderman or justice.
- noun One who frequents the benches of a tavern; an idler.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Eng. Law) One of the senior and governing members of an Inn of Court.
- noun engraving An alderman of a corporation.
- noun obsolete A member of a court or council.
- noun obsolete One who frequents the benches of a tavern; an idler.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete, law One of the senior governing members of an Inn of Court.
- noun UK, obsolete An
alderman of acorporation . - noun obsolete A member of a
court orcouncil . - noun obsolete One who frequents the benches of a
tavern ; anidler .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A front bencher from the last parliament said frankly: None of us has the first sodding idea about what government means, whether any of us will be any good at it, or even what being good at it means .......
Archive 2008-11-01 Not a sheep 2008
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A front bencher from the last parliament said frankly: None of us has the first sodding idea about what government means, whether any of us will be any good at it, or even what being good at it means .......
If receiving a document via a government leak is a crime that the police have to investigate... Not a sheep 2008
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On the whole, though, your back bencher is a pretty likeable fellow-and the fact that he can stay likeable is a credit to him.
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"bencher", such as the one we have for review today, the Banchetto 101 from Microcool.
OCTools 2010
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Senate as a Republican and she 'can't do much harm as a junior back bencher,'said Raggio.
Top Nevada Republican Endorses Harry Reid, Slams Sharron Angle The Huffington Post News Team 2010
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A few days later, Grayson, a Democratic back-bencher from Florida, said the Republicans 'health care plan was to have sick patients "die quickly."
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As I wrote at the time, shortly before Time magazine named you 1995 Man of the Year, you were no longer just a bomb-throwing back bencher but a visionary who comes up with 10 new ideas every day, even if one critic -- actually, it was me -- said nine of them are goofy and one is brilliant.
Al Eisele: The Newtster: He's Baaaack! Al Eisele 2011
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The admin. left it to a back-bencher like Grayson to call the liars out in public!!??
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As I wrote at the time, shortly before Time magazine named you 1995 Man of the Year, you were no longer just a bomb-throwing back bencher but a visionary who comes up with 10 new ideas every day, even if one critic -- actually, it was me -- said nine of them are goofy and one is brilliant.
Al Eisele: The Newtster: He's Baaaack! Al Eisele 2011
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Senate as a Republican and she 'can't do much harm as a junior back bencher'!
Top Nevada Republican Endorses Harry Reid, Slams Sharron Angle The Huffington Post News Team 2010
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