Claviger

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who carries a club; a club bearer.

    "They goaded him into testing one of his planes, tricked him into throwing one out of the window to see if it would glide, and it did; it glided right into a claviger patrolling outside."

  2. 2
    One who carries the keys to a place; a keyholder.

    "They were incensed that the claviger Bernat Mola not only slept in the church, but that by night he allowed “dishonest people and tricksters” in to gamble."

  3. 3
    A group within genus Lasius (formerly considered a subgenera Acanthomyops) of bright yellow to orange species of ant that have 3 maxillary palps and give off a distinctive citronella odor when disturbed. The group name comes from their club-shaped palps.

    "Standing body hairs are relatively less numerous and longer in claviger."

  4. 4
    A species of mosquito, Anopheles claviger.

    "Over much of its range claviger lays eggs without a blood meal, whereas forms requiring blood for egg laying have been observed on the Black Sea coast."

Example

More examples

"They goaded him into testing one of his planes, tricked him into throwing one out of the window to see if it would glide, and it did; it glided right into a claviger patrolling outside."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Latin claviger, from clava (“club”) + gerere (“to carry”).

Etymology 2

From Latin clāviger, from clāvis (“key”) + gerere (“to carry”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.