Alderman
name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A member of a municipal legislative body in a city or town.
- 2 a male member of a municipal legislative body (as a city council) wordnet
- 3 A half-crown coin; its value, 30 pence. UK, historical, obsolete, slang
"The price of a case (five shillings piece bad) from the smasher is about one shilling; an alderman (two and sixpence) about sixpence; a peg (shilling) about threepence; a downer or sprat (sixpence) about twopence."
- 4 A long pipe for smoking.
"In one part of Cockaigne an amalgamation of these two last has lately taken place; and the pleasure experienced by the parishioners of Walbrook is unbounded when smoking an alderman and churchwarden."
- 5 A large, protruding, or swollen abdomen; a paunch, a potbelly. US, slang
"He'd exercise, get the fat off, because if he let it go, he'd have too much on and maybe make his heart worse, and you looked like hell with an alderman. […] And she wouldn't want a guy who stuck out in front like a balloon."
- 1 An English surname originating as an occupation.
Example
More examples"I've been an alderman for five years."
Etymology
From Middle English alderman, aldermon, from Old English ealdorman, ealdormann, from ealdor (“elder, parent, chief, prince, author”) + mann (“person”). Doublet of ealdorman.
Occupational surname for a member of the governing body of a city, from alderman.
Related phrases
More for "alderman"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.