streetkeeper

plural streetkeepers

1. A person who maintains order on the streets.

   A certain Mr Barnard, the streetkeeper, had the job of lighting these lamps every evening.

   1993, Memories of Knysna, Friends of the Knysna Libraries, page 33

   5 more examples

   That the Commissioners shall from time to time appdnt a treasurer, clerk, surveyor, collector and assessor, beadle, streetkeeper, and such other officers as they shall think fit, with such salaries and allowances as they think reasonable.

   1860, Reports of Cases, H. Sweet, page 110

   The Schoolmaster gave him a sharp look. “I’ve heard about you. You’re the streetkeeper who bit the hand that fed him.”

   2013, Holloway, Emma Jane, A study in Darkness, Del Rey, page 52

   An attempt to put up a billboard in Palace Yard by the old House of Commons at Westminster failed, ‘the streetkeeper not permitting it, it was fetched away and carried to Mr. Bish’s Office, Charing Cross’.

   2012, Hicks, Gary, The First Adman, Victorian Secrets, page 101

   The convoy made its way to Senlis where the jailer doubled as streetkeeper and the prison was left in the command of his formidable wife.

   2011, Morton, James, The First Detective, Overlook Press, page 45

   The municipality appointed a special streetkeeper to each of these districts, whose duty it was to see that destitute sick persons were conveyed to the hospitals and to enforce cleanliness.

   1908, Theal, George McCall, History of South Africa since September 1795, Sonnenschein, page 83