noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A person who rents land under the copyhold system. historical

   "Rents had risen so much […] that copyholders had to hire themselves out as wage labourers or shepherds."

2. 2
   mechanical device used in printing; holds the copy for the compositor wordnet
3. 3
   A device that holds copy in place for typesetting. dated
4. 4
   A person who holds copy and reads it aloud to a proofreader, who checks the typeset text against it. dated

Synonyms

All synonyms

copyreaderreader

Example

More examples

"Rents had risen so much […] that copyholders had to hire themselves out as wage labourers or shepherds."

Etymology

From copy + holder.

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