sb. and a. Rom. Antiq. [ad. L. ædīl-is, prop. adj. ‘having to do with buildings,’ f. ædēs, ædis, a building, a house. (Used at first in the full L. form.)]
A. sb. A magistrate in Rome, who had the superintendence of public buildings, shows, police and other municipal functions; hence, by extension, a municipal officer.
1580. North, Plutarch (1676), 822. How cometh it to pass thou art thus rich, that thou doest sue to be Ædilis?
1607. Shaks., Coriol., III. i. 214. Ædiles seize him.
1741. Middleton, Cicero, I. VI. 433. The election of Ædiles … could not easily be kept off any longer.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, xi. 123. The ædiles had charge of the public buildings and the games and exhibitions in the capital.
B. adj. [Cf. ædīles ludi in Plautus.]
1880. Burton, Q. Anne, III. xviii. 194. An aedile police prohibited the erection of houses.
