elbow-plate 
elbow-plate (el'bo-plat), . 1. In paper-mak- 
ing, the cutter of the rag-cutting machine when 
bent to an angle in the middle. 2. An early 
name for the cubitiere, denoting especially the 
simple form used during the thirteenth century. 
See cut under armor (fig. 2). 
elbow-rail (el'bo-ral), n. In a railroad-car, a 
part of the body-framing running horizontally 
along the sides at about the height of the elbow 
of a passenger in a sitting position. Car-Build- 
er's Diet. 
elbow-room (el'bo-rom), re. Room to extend 
the elbows ; hence, freedom from confinement ; 
ample room for motion or action. 
Now my soul hath elbow-room. Shak., K. John, v. 7. 
No sooner is he disappointed of that harbour then God 
provides cities of Hebron ; Saul shal die to give him el- 
bow-room, Bp. Hall, Abner and Joab. 
elbow-scissors (el'bo-siz"orz), n. pi. Scissors 
which, for convenience in cutting, have a bend 
in the blade or shank. 
elbow-shaker (el'bo-sha/'ker), n. A dicer; a 
sharper; a gamester. Halliwell. [Old slang.] 
elbow-shield (el'bo-sheld), n. The piece of ar- 
mor protecting the elbow; a cubitiere. See 
cuts under armor (figs. 2 and 3). Hewitt. 
elbow-sleeve (el'bo-slev), . A sleeve in a 
woman's dress, terminating at the elbow. 
elbow-tongs (el'bo-tongz), n. pi. A pair of 
heavy tongs with curved jaws. 
elbuck (el'buk), n. A Scotch form of elbow. 
elcaja (el-ka'ja), n. An Arabian tree, Trichilia 
emetica, the fruit of which is emetic, and also 
is sometimes used in the composition of an 
ointment for the cure of the itch. 
Elcesaite, Elkesaite (el-se'-, el-ke'sa-it), n. 
One of a party or sect among the Jewish Chris- 
tians of the second century, deriving their 
name from Elkasai or Elxai, either their found- 
er or leader, or the title of the book containing 
their doctrines, which they regarded as a spe- 
cial revelation. Their belief and practices were a 
mixture of Gnosticism and Judaism, with much that was 
peculiar. They were finally confounded with the Ebionites. 
elchi, elchee (el'chi, -che), n. [Turk. and Pers., 
< Hind, elchi, an ambassador, envoy.] An am- 
bassador or envoy. Also spelled eltchi. 
Things which they had told to Colonel Rose they did 
not yet dare to tell to the great Elchi (Lord Stratford de 
Redcliffe). Kinglake. 
eld (eld), n. [= Sc. eild, < ME. eld, elde, eelde, 
earlier ylde, < AS. yldu, yldo, rarely celdu, (eld, 
eld, old age, an age, antiquity (= OS. eldi = 
OHG. alti, elti = Icel. old = Dan. ailde = Goth. 
aids, age, an age), < eald, old : see old and 
world.} 1. Age: said of any period of life. 
Fyfe hundredth wyntres I am of elde, 
Me thynk ther geris as yestirday. 
York Plays, p. 43. 
Lest migte the faylled 
In thyne olde elde. Piers Plowman (B), xii. 8. 
That faire child was of foure ger eld. 
William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 3498. 
2. Old age; senility; also, an old person. 
Weake eld hath left thee nothing wise. 
Spenser, F. Q., II. iii. 16. 
The weak fantasy of indigent eld. Lamb, Witches. 
Time hath reft whate'er my sonl enjoy'd, 
And with the ills of Eld mine earlier years alloy'd. 
Byron, Childe Harold, ii. 98. 
Green boyhood presses there, 
And waning eld, pleading a youthful soul, 
Intreats admission. . Southey. 
8. An age ; an indefinitely long period of time. 
The thridde werldes elde cam quanue [when] 
Thare begat Abram. Genesis and Exodus, 1. 705. 
4. Time. 
This storie olde, . . . 
That elde which al can frete and bite . . . 
Hath nygh devoured out of our memorie. 
Chaucer, Anelida and Arcite, 1. 10. 
5. Former ages ; old times ; antiquity. 
Traditions of the saint and sage, 
Tales that have the rime of age, 
And chronicles of eld. 
Longfellow, Prelude. 
[Obsolete or poetical in all uses.] 
eldt, a. An obsolete variant of old. 
eldt, v. [< ME. elden, become old, tr. make old, 
< AS. yldan, eddian, delay, tr. put off, delay, 
prolong, < eald, old: see old, a., and old, v. (of 
which eld, v., is a doublet), and eld, n."] I. in- 
trans. 1. To become old; grow old. 
Vertn stille ne sholde nat elden. 
Chaucer, Boethius, ii. prose 7. 
Time . . . had niaad liir elde 
So inly. KOM. of the Hose, 1. 395. 
2. To delay ; linger. Pa. Cott. 
1864 
II. trans. To make old. 
Tyme that eldilh our auncessours, and eldeth kings and 
emperours. Rom. of the Rose, 1. 391. 
elden (el'den), n. A dialectal form of elding. 
elder 1 (el'der), a. compar. [< ME. elder, eldere, 
cldre, either, alder, aldre, celdre, ealdre, < AS. 
yldra, eldra (= OFries. alder, elder = OS. aldira 
= OHG. alter, MHG. elter, G. alter = Icel. ellri, 
eldri = Dan. csldre = Sw. aldre), compar. (with 
umlaut) of eald, old. The compar. older is mod- 
ern, < old + -er 1 *: see old. Cf. elder*, .] 1. 
Older; senior; having lived a longer time ; born, 
produced, or formed before something else : op- 
posed to younger. 
Sadoyne hir brother that was either than she. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), iii. 472. 
The elder shall serve the younger. Gen. xxv. 23. 
His elder son was in the field. Luke xv. 25. 
After fifteen Months Imprisonment, K. Richard is re- 
leased, and returns into England four Years elder than he 
went out. Baker, Chronicles, p. 64. 
2. Prior in origin or appointment ; preceding 
in the date of a commission; senior: as, an 
elder officer or magistrate. 
You wrong me, Brutus, 
I said an elder soldier, not a better. 
Shak., J. C., iv. 3. 
He [Dryden] may very well have preferred Romanism 
because of its elder claim to authority in all matters of 
doctrine. Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 77. 
3. Prior in time; earlier; former. 
In elder times, when merriment was. 
Robin Hood and the Beggar (Child's Ballads, V. 252). 
In the elder days of Art, 
Builders wrought with greatest care. 
Longfellow, The Builders. 
The account of this ... is so strongly characterized by 
the simplicity of elder times . . . that I shall venture to 
read an extract from the author who relates it. 
Everett, Orations, II. 80. 
The North Devon coast . . . has the primary merit of 
being, as yet, virgin soil as to railways. I went accord- 
ingly from Barnstaple to Ilfracombe on the top of a coach, 
in the fashion of elder days. 
H. James, Jr., Trans. Sketches, p. 30. 
Elder Brethren. See brother. Elder Edda. SeeEdda. 
Elder band. See hand. 
elder 1 (el'der), n. [< (1) ME. pi. eldren, aildren, 
lelderen, aldren, ealdren, and (with double pi.) 
eldrene, elderne, also (with pi. of adj. in posi- 
tive) eldre, eldere, also (prop. pi. of (2), below) 
elderes, eldres, elders, rarely aiders, (a) parents, 
(6) ancestors; (2) ME. rarely in sing, eldere, 
celdere, wider, alder, (c) a chief; the forms and 
senses being mixed in ME. , but distinct in AS. : 
< AS. (1) yldran, eldran, (eldran (ONorth. aldro), 
(a) parents, (6) ancestors (rarely in sing, yldra, 
parent, father, = OFries. aldera, ieldera, alder, 
elder = OS. aldiro, aldro, pi. aldron, eldiron 
=i G. eltern, pi., parents, voreltern, ancestors, 
= Dan. for&ldre = Sw. foraldrar, pi., parents), 
pi. of yldra, etc., adj. compar. of eald, old: 
see elder 1 , a. ; (2) AS. ealdor, aldor, pi. ealdras, 
aldras, (a) an elder, parent, (6) ancestor, also 
and more commonly (c) a chief, prince, < eald, 
old, + -or; orig. identical with the compar. adj.] 
1. One who is older than another or others; 
an elderly person. 
To fructifie also this is honest, 
That yonger men obeye unto thaire eldran 
In gouvernynge, as goode and buxom children. 
Palladium, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 6. 
At the board, and in private, it very well becometh 
children's innocency to pray, and their elders to say Amen. 
Hooker, Eccles. Polity. 
He led a blooming bride, 
And stood a wither'd elder at her side. 
Crabbe, Parish Register. 
The tavern-hours of mighty wits, 
Thine elders and thy betters. 
Tennyson, Will Waterproof. 
2. A forefather; a predecessor; one of a for- 
mer generation in the same family, class, or 
community. 
By it [faith] the elders obtained a good report. 
Heb. ii. 2. 
Carry your head as your elders have done before you. 
Sir R. L'Estranye. 
3. In the Old Testament, a title of indefinite 
signification applied to various officers, but 
generally indicating in the earlier history the 
princes or heads of tribes, and afterward men 
of special influence, dignity, and authority in 
their local community. In the New Testament the 
elders are the lay element in the Sanhedrim, the supreme 
court of the Jewish nation in the first century. 
Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your 
officers, that I may speak these words in their ears. 
Deut. xxxi. 28. 
Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth 
among the elders of the land. Prov, xxxi. 23. 
elder 
In the first instance, at any rate originally, the head of 
the first house was always the head of the clan, that of 
the first clan also that of the tribe. All these three grades 
of the heads of the people, who would thus reach the total 
of 1 728, might certainly be also designated by one com- 
mon name, and in all probability this was furnished by 
the name "head" or "father," also more definitely the 
"head 9f the fathers," but more frequently by the name 
we so often meet with of elder. 
Ewald, Antiq. of Israel (trans.), p. 245. 
4. In the New Testament, also the title of 
certain officers in the Christian church, whose 
functions are not clearly defined, but who ap- 
parently exercised a considerable control in the 
conduct of the local churches. Scholars are not 
agreed as to the limits or nature of their authority. The 
Presbyterians maintain that there were two classes of el- 
ders (1 Tim. v. 17 ; 1 Cor. xii. 28 ; Rom. xii. 6-8 ; Acts xv. 
25, 26, xx. 28 ; Heb. xiii. 7, 17). The Congregationalists 
on the one hand, and the Episcopalians on the other, main- 
tain that there was no distinction between ruling and 
teaching elders, the elder or presbyter being in their judg- 
ment identical with the pastor or shepherd of the flock 
(Acts xx. 28 ; 1 Thes. v. 12 ; Heb. xiii. 7, 17 ; 1 Tim. v. 17). 
Elder is the translation of the equivalent word, which 
we still preserve in its Greek form of presbyter, and which 
is contracted through the old French forms pi-ester and 
prestre, into priest. Smith, N. T. Hist., p. 447, note. 
5. In certain Protestant churches, an officer ex- 
ercising governmental functions, either with or 
without teaching or pastoral functions, (a) In 
churches of the Baptist persuasion the pastors of churches 
are usually called elders, although the class especially so 
called are not settled pastors, but evangelists and mis- 
sionaries. (6) (1) In churches of the Presbyterian order 
the pastor of a church is technically called the teaching 
elder, as distinguished from the ruling elders, commonly 
called simply elders, who are a body of laymen, varying 
in number, selected to assist the pastor in the oversight 
and government of the church. The board of ruling el- 
ders constitute with the pastor the session of the church, 
and are intrusted with its government and discipline, sub- 
ject to the supervision of the Presbytery. Such elders are 
required to accept the Symbol or Confession of Faith of 
the Presbyterian Church ; they do not administer the sac- 
raments, but aid in the Lord's supper by distributing the 
elements. They are sometimes elected for life, sometimes 
only for a term of years. (2) In the early days of Congre- 
gationalism many churches had, besides the pastor and 
teacher, a ruling elder, charged with matters of church 
government and discipline. 
The congregation at Watertown (whereof Mr. George 
Phillips was pastor) had chosen one Richard Brown for 
their elder. Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 81. 
I judg it not lawful! for you, being a ruling Elder, . . . 
opposed to the Eldere that teach & exhorte and labore In 
y word and doctrine, to which y sacrements are annexed, 
to administer them, nor convenient if it were lawful!. 
Robinson, Quoted in Bradford's Plymouth Plantation, 
[p. 167. 
(c) In some bodies of American Methodists elder is the 
general term for any clergyman. In the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church the presiding elder is an ordained clergyman 
appointed by and serving under the bishop as superinten- 
dent, with large though carefully defined supervisory pow- 
ers within a specified "district," which usually corresponds 
somewhat in extent to an average county in an eastern 
State. In this district every minister is amenable to him, 
and every church is subject to his supervision and is usu- 
ally visited by him three or four times during the year. 
He presides at Quarterly and often at District Conferences. 
Traveling elders are itinerant preachers appointed by the 
Annual Conference, (d) In the Mormon Church the elder 
Is an officer whose duty it is "to preach and baptize ; to 
ordain other elders, and also priests, teachers, and dea- 
cons ; to lay on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost ; to 
bless children ; and to take the lead of all meetings." The 
elders constitute the Melchizedek priesthood, and include 
the apostles, the Seventy, the evangelists or patriarchs, 
and the high priest. Mormon Catechism, xvii. (e) Among 
the Shakers, four elders, two males and two females (the 
latter also called elderesses), have charge of each of the 
aggregated families. 
elder 2 (el'der), n. [(1) < ME. elder, eldre, eldyr 
(with excrescent d), eller, also ellerne, ellarne 
(whence mod. dial, eller, eldern, ellerii, ellen- 
tree), < AS. ellen, the usual form, but earlier 
ellaern (in a Kentish gloss) = MLG. elhorn, 
alliorn, alherne, etc., LG. elloorn, elder, the el- 
der-tree. (2) Another form appears in E. dial. 
Mlder, < ME. hilder, liilhr, Jiilior, hillerne, liel- 
derne (generally, like the other ME. forms, in 
connection with tree) = D. halder(-boom') (now 
vlier, vlier-boom) = Norw. liyll, liylle-tre = Sw. 
hyll, hylle-tra = Dap. liyld, hylde-tr&, elder, el- 
der-tree. (3) A third form appears in OHG. 
holantar, holvntar, MHG. Jiolander, liolder, G. 
lioluurler, hoJilunder, Jioldcr, dial, holler. It is 
doubtful whether these three forms are ult. 
identical. Popular etym. has wrought confu- 
sion, e. g., in assimilating the forms with those 
of alder*; cf. ME. elder, mod. dial, eller, LG. 
cllern, G. eller, alder. The third form, OHG. 
linhnitar, etc., appears to consist of liol-, the 
root of the word, popularly supposed to bo 
identical with liol, mod. G. Itulil, = AS. Jiol, hol- 
low, + -an = AS. -en, iuflexive or deri v. suffix, + 
-tar, MHG. -aer, prob. (as in OHG. mazzol-tra, 
MHG. mazolter, G. mansholder = AS. mapt<J-di<i; 
-ilor, -dent, maple-tree) cognate with tree: cf. 
the Scand. forms with -tre, -trci, -tra;. Some 
