tindal

plural tindals

1. IndiadatedA petty officer among lascars; a boatswain's mate; a cockswain.

   One thing that continued unchanged was the division of the crew into two watches, each led by a tindal.

   2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin, published 2015, page 16

2. IndiadatedAn attendant on an army.

   1 more example

   The party left the island about four o clock in the afternoon, and after a pleasant passage of three hours, arrived at the Jaffna Customs, where a most untoward event took place which tended greatly to mar the pleasure of the day: the unfortunate wag of a tindal not having brought a boat-note with him, the tide-waiters at the Custom-house detained all the oysters belonging to the party, which were immediately removed to the Custom-house and kept there under lock and key, pending the decision of the acting Controller of Customs!

   1844, Peter Lund Simmonds, “The Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon”, in Simmonds's Colonial Magazine and Foreign Miscellany, volume 3, page 131

plural Tindals

1. A surname.