BISHOP

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does bishop mean? 

• BISHOP (noun)
  The noun BISHOP has 3 senses:

1. a senior member of the Christian clergy having spiritual and administrative authority; appointed in Christian churches to oversee priests or ministers; considered in some churches to be successors of the twelve Apostles of Christ

2. port wine mulled with oranges and cloves

3. (chess) a piece that can be moved diagonally over unoccupied squares of the same color

  Familiarity information: BISHOP used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BISHOP (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A senior member of the Christian clergy having spiritual and administrative authority; appointed in Christian churches to oversee priests or ministers; considered in some churches to be successors of the twelve Apostles of Christ

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("bishop" is a kind of...):

priest (a clergyman in Christian churches who has the authority to perform or administer various religious rites; one of the Holy Orders)

Domain category:

Anglican Church; Anglican Communion; Church of England (the national church of England (and all other churches in other countries that share its beliefs); has its see in Canterbury and the sovereign as its temporal head)

Eastern Church; Eastern Orthodox; Eastern Orthodox Church; Orthodox Catholic Church; Orthodox Church (derived from the Byzantine Church and adhering to Byzantine rites)

Church of Rome; Roman Catholic; Roman Catholic Church; Roman Church; Western Church (the Christian Church based in the Vatican and presided over by a pope and an episcopal hierarchy)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bishop"):

archbishop (a bishop of highest rank)

cardinal ((Roman Catholic Church) one of a group of more than 100 prominent bishops in the Sacred College who advise the Pope and elect new Popes)

diocesan (a bishop having jurisdiction over a diocese)

eparch (a bishop or metropolitan in charge of an eparchy in the Eastern Church)

exarch (a bishop in eastern Christendom who holds a place below a patriarch but above a metropolitan)

exarch (a bishop in one of several Eastern Orthodox Churches in North America)

primus (the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church of Scotland)

suffragan; suffragan bishop (an assistant or subordinate bishop of a diocese)

vicar apostolic (a titular Roman Catholic bishop in a non-Catholic area)

Instance hyponyms:

Ambrose; Saint Ambrose; St. Ambrose ((Roman Catholic Church) Roman priest who became bishop of Milan; the first Church Father born and raised in the Christian faith; composer of hymns; imposed orthodoxy on the early Christian church and built up its secular power; a saint and Doctor of the Church (340?-397))

Berkeley; Bishop Berkeley; George Berkeley (Irish philosopher and Anglican bishop who opposed the materialism of Thomas Hobbes (1685-1753))

Eusebius; Eusebius of Caesarea (Christian bishop of Caesarea in Palestine; a church historian and a leading early Christian exegete (circa 270-340))

Ignatius; Saint Ignatius; St. Ignatius (bishop of Antioch who was martyred under the Roman Emperor Trajan (died 110))

Martin; St. Martin (French bishop who is a patron saint of France (died in 397))

Nicholas; Saint Nicholas; St. Nicholas (a bishop in Asia Minor who is associated with Santa Claus (4th century))

Bishop Ulfila; Bishop Ulfilas; Bishop Wulfila; Ulfila; Ulfilas; Wulfila (a Christian believed to be of Cappadocian descent who became bishop of the Visigoths in 341 and translated the Bible from Greek into Gothic; traditionally held to have invented the Gothic alphabet (311-382))

Derivation:

episcopal (denoting or governed by or relating to a bishop or bishops)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Port wine mulled with oranges and cloves

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("bishop" is a kind of...):

mulled wine (wine heated with sugar and spices and often citrus fruit)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(chess) a piece that can be moved diagonally over unoccupied squares of the same color

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("bishop" is a kind of...):

chess piece; chessman (any of 16 white and 16 black pieces used in playing the game of chess)

Domain category:

chess; chess game (a board game for two players who move their 16 pieces according to specific rules; the object is to checkmate the opponent's king)

 Context examples 

"Tell me, now," he added, with the air of a bishop addressing a Sunday-school, "did you happen to observe whether the creature could cross its thumb over its palm?"

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I hurt my leg and cannot ride,” quoth the bishop's champion.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Only the other day, as I was seated in Watier’s, my box of prime macouba open upon the table beside me, an Irish bishop thrust in his intrusive fingers.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Aye, aye,” said Silver; “like enough; you wouldn't look to find a bishop here, I reckon. But what sort of a way is that for bones to lie? 'Tain't in natur'.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Greenland even gained its own bishop.

(Lost Norse of Greenland fuelled the medieval ivory trade, ancient walrus DNA suggests, University of Cambridge)

I think that some day the bishops must get together and see about breeding up a new class of curates, who don't take supper, no matter how they may be pressed to, and who will know when girls are tired.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

To these were joined several holy persons, as part of that assembly, under the title of bishops, whose peculiar business is to take care of religion, and of those who instruct the people therein.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Founded by Erik the Red around 985AD after his exile from Iceland (or so the Sagas tell us), Norse communities in Greenland thrived for centuries – even gaining a bishop – before vanishing in the 1400s, leaving only ruins.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)

“A bishop!” cried my father. “You draw your line very high, sir.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Art surely no mere clerk, but bishop or cardinal at the least.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)