ELDER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does elder mean? 

• ELDER (noun)
  The noun ELDER has 3 senses:

1. a person who is older than you are

2. any of numerous shrubs or small trees of temperate and subtropical northern hemisphere having white flowers and berrylike fruit

3. any of various church officers

  Familiarity information: ELDER used as a noun is uncommon.

• ELDER (adjective)
  The adjective ELDER has 1 sense:

1. used of the older of two persons of the same name especially used to distinguish a father from his son

  Familiarity information: ELDER used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ELDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who is older than you are

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

elder; senior

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

adult; grownup (a fully developed person from maturity onward)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "elder"):

dean; doyen (a man who is the senior member of a group)

doyenne (a woman who is the senior member of a group)

Derivation:

elder (used of the older of two persons of the same name especially used to distinguish a father from his son)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of numerous shrubs or small trees of temperate and subtropical northern hemisphere having white flowers and berrylike fruit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

elder; elderberry bush

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

bush; shrub (a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "elder"):

American elder; black elderberry; Sambucus canadensis; sweet elder (common elder of central and eastern North America bearing purple-black berries; fruit used in wines and jellies)

blue elder; blue elderberry; Sambucus caerulea (shrub or small tree of western United States having white flowers and blue berries; fruit used in wines and jellies)

danewort; dwarf elder; Sambucus ebulus (dwarf herbaceous elder of Europe having pink flowers and a nauseous odor)

black elder; bourtree; common elder; elderberry; European elder; Sambucus nigra (a common shrub with black fruit or a small tree of Europe and Asia; fruit used for wines and jellies)

American red elder; red-berried elder; Sambucus pubens; stinking elder (common North American shrub or small tree)

European red elder; red-berried elder; Sambucus racemosa (Eurasian shrub)

Holonyms ("elder" is a member of...):

genus Sambucus; Sambucus (elder; elderberry)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Any of various church officers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

church officer (a church official)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "elder"):

presbyter (an elder in the Presbyterian Church)

Derivation:

eldership (the office of elder)

• ELDER (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Used of the older of two persons of the same name especially used to distinguish a father from his son

Synonyms:

elder; older; sr.

Context example:

Bill Adams, Sr.

Similar:

senior (older; higher in rank; longer in length of tenure or service)

Derivation:

elder (a person who is older than you are)

 Context examples 

It was on the 3rd of May that we reached the little village of Meiringen, where we put up at the Englischer Hof, then kept by Peter Steiler the elder.

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

He lost his elder brother a few years since.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“He must be a powerful man, this elder Randall,” he remarked.

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

If you have an elderly relative who depends on your care, you will have to make arrangements so that your elder will feel secure.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Though better endowed than the elder sister, Mary had not Anne's understanding nor temper.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The younger ones out before the elder ones are married!

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Elder abuse will not stop on its own.

(Elder Abuse, NIH: National Institute on Aging)

She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his hand as if to strike his father.

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

But White Fang, uncompanionable, solitary, morose, scarcely looking to right or left, redoubtable, forbidding of aspect, remote and alien, was accepted as an equal by his puzzled elders.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I gathered from what they said, that an elder sister of his was coming to stay with them, and that she was expected that evening.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)