I. ˈklərk, -ə̄k, -əik, Brit usually ˈklȧk noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French clerc & Old English clerc, cleric, both from Late Latin clericus, from Greek klērikos, from Greek klēros lot, allotment, clergy + -ikos -ic; akin to Greek klan to break — more at gladiator
1. : a clergyman or cleric: as
a. : an ordained minister of the Church of England
a clerk in holy orders
b. Roman Catholicism
(1) : one who has received the ecclesiastical tonsure
(2) : a person who under canon law enjoys benefit of clergy (as a monk or nun)
2. archaic
a. : a person who can read or read and write
b. : a learned person : scholar , man of letters
3.
a. : an employee or official responsible (as to a corporation or a government agency) for correspondence, the keeping of records and accounts, and the management of routine affairs and vested with certain specified powers or authority (as to issue writs or other processes as ordered by a court) : secretary
clerk of a court
town clerk
clerk of the society
b.
(1) : one employed (as in a business office) to keep records or accounts or to perform more or less routine office tasks
tally clerk
filing clerk
(2) : one in charge of records and accounts on a steamboat : purser of a steamboat
c.
(1) : a postal employee who works at the sales and service windows in a post office and especially in a small post office sometimes performs operations connected with the sorting of mail
(2) : one who sorts mail in a railway post office
d. : a hotel employee usually stationed at the desk who serves the hotel and its guests especially by assigning rooms and performing small services (as giving guests their mail and holding their keys when they are out of the hotel)
4. : a layman who performs some ecclesiastical office:
a. : a Church of England minister regarded in civil law as a layman whose office is to assist the clergy, lead the responses, and teach in schools — called also parish clerk
b. : a layman or laywoman in the Protestant Episcopal Church serving as the scribe of the vestry and sometimes also of the parish or parish meeting
c. : a chief official appointed to serve at a regularly organized meeting of the Society of Friends
5. : a salesperson in a store : one who shows and sells articles or merchandise in a store
a grocery clerk
6. : one who holds a clerkship (sense 3)
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
intransitive verb
: to act or work as a clerk
clerking in the feed store at six dollars a week — Elmer Davis
transitive verb
chiefly Scotland : write , compose