Definition of "commissionaire" [com•mis•sion•aire]

• Chiefly British A uniformed attendant, such as a doorman. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It converts its German distributor to a stripped-risk intermediary called a commissionaire to limit what would otherwise be sales margins taxable in Germany."
• "She not only gave me the required direction, but called a commissionaire, and bid him take charge of me, and — not my trunk, for that was gone to the custom-house."
• "Enter R. an important-looking personage with a long white beard, wearing a costume which might be, called a commissionaire's if it wasn't so like a harlequin's."