('chiefly Brit') You should respect 'your elders and betters'. [=people who are older and more important than you]
('formal') He was my 'elder' by 11 months. [=he was 11 months older than I was]
He was told to respect his 'elders'. [=people who were older than he was]
(..) for a phone call here each day, even though he had a phone in his motel room. The nature of the calls is not known. A touch of irony: the young man walking with the elder Hinckley... is thirty year old Scott Hinckley, John Junior's brother. He and Vice-President Bush's son Neal are friends. (..)2009 Loose Change 9/11: An American Coup