Definition of "paternoster" []

• The Lord's Prayer. (noun)
• One of the large beads on a rosary on which the Lord's Prayer is said. (noun)
• A sequence of words spoken as a prayer or a magic formula. (noun)
• A weighted fishing line having several jointed attachments for hooks connected by beadlike swivels. (noun)
• An elevator constructed of a series of doorless compartments hung on chains that move slowly and continuously, allowing passengers to step on and off at will. (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.

• "To quote Wikipedia: A paternoster is a passenger elevator which consists of a chain of open compartments each usually designed for two persons that move slowly in a loop up and down inside a building without stopping."
• "Early the next morning I left Ancona with him, distracted by the tears of the two charming sisters and loaded with the blessings of the mother who, with beads in hand, mumbled her 'paternoster', and repeated her constant theme: 'Dio provedera'."
• "In Braunschweig, we played at a rather scary-looking place see picture above where the elevator was a paternoster."