Library / English Dictionary

CLERK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An employee who performs clerical work (e.g., keeps records or accounts)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

employee (a worker who is hired to perform a job)

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

desk clerk; hotel clerk; hotel desk clerk (a hotel receptionist)

file clerk; filer; filing clerk (a clerk who is employed to maintain the files of an organization)

paper-pusher (a clerk or bureaucrat who does paperwork)

pencil pusher; penpusher (a clerk who does boring paperwork)

mapper; plotter (a clerk who marks data on a chart)

mail clerk; postal clerk (a clerk in a post office)

settler (a clerk in a betting shop who calculates the winnings)

shipping clerk (an employee who ships and receives goods)

sorter (a clerk who sorts things (as letters at the post office))

tally clerk; tallyman (one who keeps a tally of quantity or weight of goods produced or shipped or received)

timekeeper (a clerk who keeps track of the hours worked by employees)

Derivation:

clerical (appropriate for or engaged in office work)

clerical (of or relating to clerks)

clerk (work as a clerk, as in the legal business)

clerkship (the job of clerk)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A salesperson in a store

Synonyms:

clerk; salesclerk; shop assistant; shop clerk

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

sales rep; sales representative; salesperson (a person employed to represent a business and to sell its merchandise (as to customers in a store or to customers who are visited))

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

shop boy (a young male shop assistant)

shop girl (a young female shop assistant)

Derivation:

clerkship (the job of clerk)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Work as a clerk, as in the legal business

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "clerk" is one way to...):

work (exert oneself by doing mental or physical work for a purpose or out of necessity)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

clerk (an employee who performs clerical work (e.g., keeps records or accounts))

clerking (the activity of recording business transactions)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The clerk, being a married man, condescended to take an interest in the couple, who appeared to be shopping for their family.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"Very likely," I returned; "or perhaps clerk or agent to a wine-merchant."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The clerks grow expert from habit.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

"I am a solicitor's clerk," said he.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Of course my statement must be taken cum grano, since I am writing from the dictation of a clerk of the Russian consul, who kindly translated for me, time being short.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But the countryman seized his fiddle, and struck up a tune, and at the first note judge, clerks, and jailer were in motion; all began capering, and no one could hold the miser.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Now there's Mr. Rose at Exeter, a prodigious smart young man, quite a beau, clerk to Mr. Simpson, you know, and yet if you do but meet him of a morning, he is not fit to be seen.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

She had now seen all that were at home; there remained only two brothers between herself and Susan, one of whom was a clerk in a public office in London, and the other midshipman on board an Indiaman.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The house and grounds, and furniture, were approved, the Crofts were approved, terms, time, every thing, and every body, was right; and Mr Shepherd's clerks were set to work, without there having been a single preliminary difference to modify of all that This indenture sheweth.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

She had a sister married to a Mr. Phillips, who had been a clerk to their father and succeeded him in the business, and a brother settled in London in a respectable line of trade.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)