society > authority > office > holder of office > ceremonial officials > [noun] > usher > mace-bearer > in universities (3)
An apparitor or precursor who walks officially in front of dignitaries, a mace-bearer. spec. in the English universities (at present conventionally…
University slang. A university bedel at Oxford and Cambridge, who carries a stave or mace before the Vice-Chancellor. Cf. sense 10b. Now rare.
a mace-bearer, a University bedel.