Related:

• MINISTER, n. An agent of a higher power with a lower responsibility.
  In diplomacy and officer sent into a foreign country as the visible embodiment of his sovereign's hostility....
• FRANKALMOIGNE, n. The tenure by which a religious corporation holds lands on condition of praying for the soul of the donor.
  In mediaeval times many of the wealthiest fraternities obtained their estates in this simple and cheap manner, and once when Henry VIII of England sent an officer to confiscate certain vast possessions which a fraternity of monks held by frankalmoigne, "What!...
• REPRESENTATIVE, n. In national politics, a member of the Lower House in this world, and without discernible hope of promotion in the next.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• PRELATE, n. A church officer having a superior degree of holiness and a fat preferment.
  One of Heaven's aristocracy. A gentleman of God. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• PRIVATE, n. A military gentleman with a field-marshal's baton in his knapsack and an impediment in his hope.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• Acquaintance, n.: A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• MUMMY, n. An ancient Egyptian, formerly in universal use among modern civilized nations as medicine, and now engaged in supplying art with an excellent pigment.
  He is handy, too, in museums in gratifying the vulgar curiosity that serves to distinguish man from the lower animals....
• AMNESTY, n. The state's magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...