[see -DOM.] The embodiment of the characteristics of beadles as a class; stupid officiousness and ‘red-tapeism.’
1845. D. Jerrold, in Montreal Gaz., 8 Feb., 4/2. The beadle, you will observe, shines with more than usual lustre of beadledom: he has mounted a new cocked hat, and his bearing is striking to behold.
1860. Temple Bar, I. 8. The defeat of beadledom and vestrydom.
1861. Blackw. Mag., 732. [Words] which serve to express the relationship supposed to exist between the higher and lower grades of English society. Flunkeyism, plush, beadledom, lordolatry.
1866. Reader, 15 Dec., 1006. At present we have too much beadledom on the episcopal bench.
