DIGNITARY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does dignitary mean? 

• DIGNITARY (noun)
  The noun DIGNITARY has 1 sense:

1. an important or influential (and often overbearing) person

  Familiarity information: DIGNITARY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIGNITARY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An important or influential (and often overbearing) person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

dignitary; high-up; high muckamuck; panjandrum; very important person; VIP

Hypernyms ("dignitary" is a kind of...):

important person; influential person; personage (a person whose actions and opinions strongly influence the course of events)

 Context examples 

Alleyne scarce saw his way to argue in the face of so decided an opinion on the part of a high dignitary of the Church.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

These cosmic dignitaries include Jupiter (good fortune), Pluto (transformation), and Saturn (long-term security).

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

At the end were the signatures of the high dignitaries who had signed it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A courtesy title of reverence, as for church dignitaries, officers of monasteries, monks, confessors, and especially priests.

(Father, NCI Thesaurus)

Their cravats were in general stiff, I thought, and their looks haughty; but in this last respect I presently conceived I had done them an injustice, for when two or three of them had to rise and answer a question of the presiding dignitary, I never saw anything more sheepish.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Knowing that he would return there, Garcia, who is the son of the former highest dignitary in San Pedro, was waiting with two trusty companions of humble station, all three fired with the same reasons for revenge.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Abbot spoke in Latin now, as a language which was more fitted by its age and solemnity to convey the thoughts of two high dignitaries of the order.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Behind the thrones there stood two men in purple gowns, with ascetic, clean-shaven faces, and half a dozen other high dignitaries and office-holders of Aquitaine.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)