1An official of a legislative assembly whose duty includes maintaining order and security.
Example sentencesExamples
The Sheriff naively walked into the senate chamber, announced his purpose, and was promptly arrested by the acting sergeant-at-arms.
The lawmaker struck the sergeant-at-arms as House members were trying to silence impeachment supporters in the gallery before the scuffle.
‘Denis, who was watching the result from the opposition box on the floor of the House, shouted ‘hooray’,’ she revealed, ‘and was, quite properly, reproved by one of the sergeants-at-arms.’
The Court merely sent a two-sentence message to the sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives the afternoon of the speech.
He who then ordered the Senate's sergeant-at-arms to remove all staplers from the Capitol building and congressional offices.
It was entirely appropriate for the chairman of that committee to call the sergeant-at-arms and the Capitol Police so order in the committee could be maintained.
After several minutes of waiting, the rather portly sergeant-at-arms sauntered into the room with an air of superiority far too concentrated for his station in life.
I drove from Edmonton to St. John's and visited with a sergeant-at-arms in each province and they all said they liked the project.
Until the middle of the 19th century, Congress would enforce contempt citations itself, with the sergeants-at-arms taking guilty parties into custody.
It was not clear what prompted the lawmaker to strike the sergeant-at-arms but House members were trying to silence noisy impeachment supporters in the gallery before the scuffle.
They had met in 1856 when he was a messenger in the Iowa House of Representatives and she, a sometime politician, was its sergeant-at-arms.
A memo from the House sergeant-at-arms said the mail would be ‘picked up… for additional screening and returned to you as soon as possible’.
The lawmaker asked the sergeant-at-arms to initiate steps for their release, which the latter refused, saying it is the jurisdiction of the speaker.
Six or seven weeks ago, the political-media hive went on full alert when the rumor swept town that the Senate's sergeant-at-arms had been notified and the senator would soon be lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda.
After the meeting, he announced that the Alliance's sergeant-at-arms would be teaching a class on close-quarters combat for anyone interested.
During the exercise last month, a question and answer session was held by the deputy serjeant-at-arms.
The legislature serjeant-at-arms said the road will be closed from 6am near the Ministerial Complex and all vehicles from the directions of East London and Zwelitsha will be diverted to Maitland Road near the garage.
A report by the Senate sergeant-at-arms earlier this year faulted two of the committee chairman's former employees for the intrusion.
When he read the report the following day, he became alarmed at its ‘tone’ and met with the Senate sergeant-at-arms to discuss it.
He went on to work as a probation officer and then sergeant-at-arms for the Pennsylvania House.
1.1British historical A knight or armed officer in the service of the monarch or a lord.
Example sentencesExamples
It has been claimed that the household sergeants-at-arms of Richard ‘the Lionheart’ were the first English military police, and the English army of the 16th century had a few ‘tipstaves’ who exercised limited powers.