tide waiter

Definition

A customs inspector at a seaport who oversees the landing of goods from merchant vessels in order to secure payment of duties.

Example Sentences

• ""Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a fish-monger and a tide-waiter.""
• "Great employments are and will be in the hands of Englishmen; nothing left for the younger sons of Irishmen, but vicarages, tidewaiters places, &c. therefore no reason to make them worse."