HIGH PRIEST

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does high priest mean? 

• HIGH PRIEST (noun)
  The noun HIGH PRIEST has 2 senses:

1. a preeminent authority or major proponent of a movement or doctrine

2. a senior clergyman and dignitary

  Familiarity information: HIGH PRIEST used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HIGH PRIEST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A preeminent authority or major proponent of a movement or doctrine

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

he's the high priest of contemporary jazz

Hypernyms ("high priest" is a kind of...):

authority (an expert whose views are taken as definitive)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A senior clergyman and dignitary

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

archpriest; hierarch; high priest; prelate; primate

Hypernyms ("high priest" 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)

Instance hyponyms:

Gloomy Dean; Inge; William Ralph Inge (English prelate noted for his pessimistic sermons and articles (1860-1954))

Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros; Jimenez de Cisneros (prelate who was the confessor of Isabella I and who was later appointed Grand Inquisitor (1436-1517))

Cardinal Newman; John Henry Newman; Newman (English prelate and theologian who (with John Keble and Edward Pusey) founded the Oxford movement; Newman later turned to Roman Catholicism and became a cardinal (1801-1890))

Armand Jean du Plessis; Cardinal Richelieu; Duc de Richelieu; Richelieu (French prelate and statesman; principal minister to Louis XIII (1585-1642))

Desmond Tutu; Tutu (South African prelate and leader of the antiapartheid struggle (born in 1931))

James Usher; James Ussher; Usher; Ussher (Irish prelate who deduced from the Bible that Creation occurred in the year 4004 BC (1581-1656))

William of Wykeham; Wykeham (English prelate and statesman; founded a college at Oxford and Winchester College in Winchester; served as chancellor of England and bishop of Winchester (1324-1404))

Stefan Wyszynski; Wyszynski (Polish prelate who persuaded the Soviet to allow greater religious freedom in Poland (1901-1981))

 Context examples 

I put forward this obvious reflection, not out of any desire to disparage Mr. Waldron in particular, but that you may not lose your sense of proportion and mistake the acolyte for the high priest.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I told him, “that in the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langdon, where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state, and their deputies. The plots, in that kingdom, are usually the workmanship of those persons who desire to raise their own characters of profound politicians; to restore new vigour to a crazy administration; to stifle or divert general discontents; to fill their coffers with forfeitures; and raise, or sink the opinion of public credit, as either shall best answer their private advantage. It is first agreed and settled among them, what suspected persons shall be accused of a plot; then, effectual care is taken to secure all their letters and papers, and put the owners in chains. These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister; the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running sore, the administration.

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