clerk

plural clerks · alternative obsolete clark

1. One who occupationally provides assistance by working with records, accounts, letters, etc.; an office worker.

   As office boy I made such a mark That they gave me the post of a junior clerk.

   1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, “When I Was a Lad”, in H.M.S. Pinafore; […], San Francisco: Bacon & Company, […], →OCLC, page 10

   2 more examples

   Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.

   1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC

   clerks; a brand of humanity which, as the literature from Dickens to Gogol makes only too clear, was hardly to be envied except perhaps for the privilege of public service, the security which allowed them to starve at an even rhythm all their lives.

   1962, Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution. 1789-1848, page 193

   1. A salesclerk; a person who serves customers in a store or market.
   2. A law clerk.
   3. An employee at a hotel who deals with guests.
   4. The chief legal advisor of a legislature or legislative chamber, who is usually also responsible for keeping minutes of sittings.
2. QuakerismA facilitator of a Quaker meeting for business affairs.
3. archaicIn the Church of England, the layman that assists in the church service, especially in reading the responses (also called parish clerk and Bible clerk).

   God save the King! Will no man say, amen? / Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, amen.

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act 4, scene 1]

4. datedA cleric or clergyman (the legal title for clergy of the Church of England is "Clerk in Holy Orders", still used in legal documents and cherished by some of their number).
5. obsoleteA scholar.

   13th century, Traditional carol, And all was for an appel, an appel that he toke/As clerkès finden written in their boke.

present singular third person clerks · participle present clerking · participle past clerked · past clerked · alternative obsolete clark

1. To act as a clerk, to perform the duties or functions of a clerk.

   The law school graduate clerked for the supreme court judge for the summer.

   3 more examples

   He turned to a more attentive audience, and found it in the young fellow they called The Iceman, because he clerked in the swell jewelry store around the corner, and was always there with the finger advertisement for his boss’s diamondware.

   1908 July 4, “Iceman’s Boss Was Easy. How Needles Put the Jeweler Next to a Winner and an Accomodating^([sic]) Bookie. [New York Press.]”, in The Cincinnati Enquirer, volume LXV, number 186, page 13, column 6

   […] for three years he had worked in the stinking labyrinth of the Mandalay bazaars, clerking for the rice merchants and sometimes stealing.

   1934, George Orwell, chapter 1, in Burmese Days

   1956, Jean Stafford, "A Reading Problem" in The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1984, p. 332, In the winter, they lived in a town called Hoxie, Arkansas, where Evangelist Gerlash clerked in the Buttorf drugstore and preached and baptized on the side.

2. medicineTo assemble information about a patient during their initial assessment by actions such as a taking a detailed medical history and performing a physical examination.

   You should present a case you have clerked to a doctor (registrar or consultant) and discuss your choice of investigations and management.

   2008, Nathalie Hurley, James Dawson, Stephan Sanders, Simon Eccles, Oxford Handbook for the Foundation Programme, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 18

   2 more examples

   The best preparation for the long case is to clerk patients on the wards and in outpatients within a strict 60 minutes. This would include deciding on a policy of management.

   1987, R.A. Blackwood, T.M.E. Davis, A Guide to the MRCP Part II Examination, Blackwell Scientific Publications, →ISBN, page 51

   The best way to get involved is to clerk new patients on the ward prior to the rounds and then present your clerkings to the person leading the round.

   2011, David Randall, Introduction to Clinical Medicine: A Clerking Companion, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page xi

plural Clerks

1. A surname.