Elder

1. n. A genus of shrubs (Sambucus) having broad umbels of white flowers, and small black or red berries.
2. a. Older; more aged, or existing longer.
3. a. Born before another; prior in years; senior; earlier; older; as, his elder brother died in infancy; — opposed to younger, and now commonly applied to a son, daughter, child, brother, etc.
4. a. One who is older; a superior in age; a senior.
5. a. An aged person; one who lived at an earlier period; a predecessor.
6. a. A person who, on account of his age, occupies the office of ruler or judge; hence, a person occupying any office appropriate to such as have the experience and dignity which age confers; as, the elders of Israel; the elders of the synagogue; the elders in the apostolic church.
7. a. A clergyman authorized to administer all the sacraments; as, a traveling elder.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.