[f. USHER sb. + -SHIP.]

1

  1.  The office or functions of an usher.

2

1580.  Fulke, Martiall Confut., iv. 165. Ye Priestes are appointed to vse those signes, which if Martials Vshership will not admit, [etc.].

3

1631.  T. Powell, Tom of all Trades, 44. To leape into instantly, and imediately out of a Ladies vshership.

4

1740.  Ld. Harrington, in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 275. The Ushership of the Exchequer.

5

1788.  Cowper, Lett., Wks. 1836, VI. 201. When I was under his ushership at Westminster.

6

1825.  T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. III. 93. To assume the ushership of the black rod at Montgomery Place.

7

1881.  Daily News, 1 Aug., 5/3. In Algeria … his years of ushership had been the most wretched of his life.

8

  2.  A post or position as a (school-) usher.

9

1825.  Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 79. The son … being put to school, obtained successive usherships.

10

1880.  R. K. Dent, Old & New Birmingham, 79. Johnson having found the drudgery of an ushership … too irksome for him.

11