servitorship
(ˈsɜːvɪtəʃɪp)
[f. servitor + -ship.]
a. The position, state, or duties of a servitor at an Oxford college. Obs. exc. Hist.
| 1785 Boswell Tour Hebrides 130 note, Dr. Johnson..by his interest with the Rev. Dr. Adams, master of Pembroke College, Oxford,..obtained a servitorship for young M'Aulay. 1820 Southey Wesley I. 52 Servitorships are more in the spirit of a Roman Catholic than of an English establishment. 1868 M. Pattison Academ. Org. 73 It is not so much we that have abolished servitorships, as time and manners that have made the position untenable. 1897 Fairbairn Catholicism (1899) 445 The evil system and associations of the old servitorship left for life their ignoble stamp on the soul of Whitefield. |
b. The condition of being a servitor or servant.
| 1824 Blackw. Mag. XV. 254 Postmen, beadles, scavengers, chimney-sweeps—the whole pecus of parochial servitorship was at my gate. |