lictor

lic·tor

(lĭk′tər)

A Roman functionary who carried fasces when attending a magistrate in public appearances.

[From Middle English littoures, lictors, from Latin lictōrēs, pl. of lictor; see leig- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

lictor

(ˈlɪktə)

(Government, Politics & Diplomacy) one of a group of ancient Roman officials, usually bearing fasces, who attended magistrates, etc

[C16 lictor, C14 littour, from Latin ligāre to bind]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

lic•tor

(ˈlɪk tər)

n.

an ancient Roman official who carried the fasces and assisted magistrates in making arrests and carrying out sentences.

[1580–90; < Latin]

lic•to′ri•an (-ˈtɔr i ən, -ˈtoʊr-) adj.

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

"Whether the God descend from above Or the man ascend upon high, Whether this maker of tents be Jove Or a younger deity-- I will be no judge between your gods And your godless bickerings, Lictor, drive them hence with rods-- I care for none of these things!

View in context

Ramiz Alia, Hoxha's successor, had in his younger days been a member of the ultrafascist Albanian Youth of the Lictor. Under the direct patronage of Mussolini and the Vatican, this outfit stood for the twin objectives of Greater Albania and the forcible conversion of the Balkans to Catholicism.

Minority report

Tiberetta became dam of the top-class chaser Spanish Steps, who was in the frame in the Grand Nationals of 1973, 1974 and 1975, Lictor, winner of the 1976 Topham Trophy over the National fences, and Quintus, third in the same race three years previously.

Cover Your Money strikes a rich vein; Red Marauder leads the way as dam's remarkable winning spree gives Jenks family a major boost

Some tyrannids were restricted to one or two environments, such as Cnemotriccus fuscatus and Lessonia rufa in the forested savannah, Gubernetes yetapa, Camptostoma obsoletum and Megarynchus pitangua in the savannah, Xolmis velatus in the grasslands, Philohydor lictor in the river and Machetornis rixosa in the salinas.

Variacion temporal y espacial en la riqueza y abundancia de la comunidad de aves del humedal Pantanal de Nhecolandia (Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil)

Externally, it was, of course, easier, since today's preachers must fear neither the lion's teeth nor the lictor's axes.

Letters

Before our eyes in this life is also Sisyphus, who thirsts to solicit from the people the lictor's rods and cruel axes, and always retires sad and defeated.

Transcending Lucretius: Vitruvius, Atomism, and the Rhetoric of Monumental Permanence

In addition to the carnifex, John describes the prince as a lictor, a different category of ancient Roman executioner.

The image of an executioner: princes and decapitations in John of Salisbury's Policraticus

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTION: clitoris; clot; coil; coir; colitis; colt; cool; coot; cortisol; cost; lictor; loco; loot; loris; lost; loti; octroi; olio; oolitic; otic; riot; roil; roost; root; roti; scoot; scot; silo; sloot; slot; soil; solicit; SOLICITOR; solo; soot; sort; sotol; stoic; stool; stoor; tiro; toco; toil; tool; torc; toric; torii; torso; trio.

Nonagram

Del circulo de MECENAS--cercano al emperador AUGUSTO--, hizo mencion al de rebus per epistulam quaesitis de VARIO RUFO--a proposito del significado y origen de la palabra lictor (GEL.

El derecho publico en las "Noches Aticas" de Aulo Gelio

I don't like cauliflower gratin, I never did like it, as far back as I can remember, even when I was in limbo I never ate it, or later on when I was a lictor in Rome, or when I shod horses under Pepin the Short, and when I was a sea-snail or a warbler, or a paramecium: I didn't like it then either--not even when I was a slug in the vegetable garden!