Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BEA'DLE, n. [Sax. bydel or bædel; Fr. bedeau; Sp. bedel; It. bidello; Ger. büttel, pedell; Sw. bodel, a beadle, or lictor; from the root of bid, Sax. beodan, to order or command. See Bid.]

1. A messenger or crier of a court; a servitor; one who cites persons to appear and answer; called also an apparitor or summoner. – Encyc.
2. An officer in a university, whose chief business is to walk with a mace, before the masters, in a public procession; or, as in America, before the president, trustees, faculty and students of a college, in a procession, at public commencements. – Encyc.
3. A parish officer, whose business is to punish petty offenders. – Johnson.