Dictionary entry

Apparitor

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Ap‐par″i‐tor (�), n. [L., fr. apparere. See Appear.] 1. Formerly, an officer who attended magistrates and judges to execute their orders.

Before any of his apparitors could execute the sentence, he was himself summoned away by a sterner apparitor to the other world.

De Quincey.

2. (Law) A messenger or officer who serves the process of an ecclesiastical court. Bouvier.