torch-bearer
(ˈtɔːtʃˌbɛərə(r))
One who carries a torch. Also fig.
| 1538 Elyot, Facularii, torche bearers. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. ii. vi. 40 Descend, for you must be my torch-bearer. 1624 Bedell Lett. xi. 140 As if all that are made Priests among you were Psalmists, Sextons, Readers, Exorcists, Torch-bearers, Subdeacons, and Deacons before. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles ii. xxii, Twelve sandall'd monks, who reliques bore, With many a torch-bearer before. 1847 Grote Greece ii. xxxii. IV. 272 The enterprising mariners who inhabited it had been the torch-bearers of Grecian geographical discovery in the west. 1853 Dale tr. Baldeschi's Ceremonial 189 The Torch-bearers having genuflected, consign their torches to the first they meet in choir. |
So ˈtorch-ˌbearing n. and a.
| 1721 Strype Eccl. Mem. III. xxi. 175 There he saw torch-bearing in day-light, at mass. 1881 Ruskin Bible of Amiens ii. 88 No torch-bearing maid of battle, like Clotilde. |