Meaning of tide waiter | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A customs inspector at a seaport who oversees the landing of goods from merchant vessels in order to secure payment of duties.
   UK, historical
2. A person who watches public opinion before declaring their own.

Examples

“"Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a fish-monger and a tide-waiter."”

“Great employments are and will be in the hands of Englishmen; nothing left for the younger sons of Irishmen, but vicarages, tidewaiters places, &c. therefore no reason to make them worse.”

CEFR level