Definition of "pew-opener" [pew-opener]

• An attendant in a church who opens the pew-doors for the congregation. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "Yet, such was her dread of his austerity and the arrogance of his reproaches, that, by choice, she would have preferred an habitation with her own pensioner, the pew-opener, to the grandest apartment in Delvile Castle while he continued its lord."
• "The clergyman now began to enquire of the pew-opener, what she knew of the woman, who she was, and how she had got into the church?"
• "She could recollect, however, one only thing that had escaped her vigilance, which was acquainting the pew-opener, and two or three other poor women who had weekly pensions from her, that they must, at least for the present, depend no longer upon her assistance."