Definition of "angel"

The dear good angel of the Spring, / The nightingale.

1641, Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd

There seemed to be girls sitting on top of them, or maybe they were meant to be angels. Angels are usually represented as wearing more than that, though.

1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 50

Michael Brown, 18, due to be buried on Monday, was no angel, with public records and interviews with friends and family revealing both problems and promise in his young life.

2014 August 25, John Eligon, “Michael Brown Spent Last Weeks Grappling With Problems and Promise”, in The New York Times‎

Diſpaire thy Charme, / And let the Angell whom thou ſtill haſt ſeru’d / Tell thee, Macduffe was from his Mothers womb / Vntimely ript.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene viii], page 151, column 1, lines 13–14

An apostle, or angel, or bishop, as he is now called, resided with a college of presbyters about him, in every considerable city of the Roman empire; to that angel or bishop, was committed the pastoral care of all the Christian in the city and its suburbs, extending as far on all sides as the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate extended;

1817, Thomas Stackhouse, A history of the holy Bible, corrected and improved by G. Gleig, page 504

[…] the head of that Church, in whose place I stand in my Church, and in whose place no other standeth (the elders and deacons have their place, but this belongeth to the angel or minister of the Church), and the Lord commendeth him for trying […]

1832, Edward Irving, speech before the Presbytery of London, quoted in 1862, Margaret Oliphant, The Life of Edward Irving, Minister of the National Scotch Church, London: Illustrated by His Journals and Correspondence, page 429

The second or highest grade consists of the Angels or Bishops of Churches. Each Church has its Angel, who has (1) the higher supervision and care of all the flock, (2) the supervision and care of the Priests under him, and (3) the care of the Church itself.

1878, Edward Miller, The History and Doctrines of Irvingism Or of the So-called Catholic and Apostolic Church, § 9 Pastors, page 50 (discussing the structure of the early Christian church and of the Catholic Apostolic Church)

“Latent” angels are defined as those who have not invested capital in the past 12 months, although they likely have invested knowledge in the process of reviewing potential investments.

2011, OECD, Financing High-Growth Firms: The Role of Angel Investors

Six years ago, he lost $20,000 in the first show he angelled, a turkey called Dance Night.

1944, Maurice Zolotow, Never Whistle in a Dressing Room; Or, Breakfast in Bedlam, page 59

You've got to come to Chicago to meet Duell, and see Wilson, who's going to angel the show.

1984, “American Magazine”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎, volume 118, page 88