PASTORAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does pastoral mean? 

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

1. a musical composition that evokes rural life

2. a letter from a pastor to the congregation

3. a literary work idealizing the rural life (especially the life of shepherds)

  Familiarity information: PASTORAL used as a noun is uncommon.

• PASTORAL (adjective)
  The adjective PASTORAL has 3 senses:

1. of or relating to a pastor

2. relating to shepherds or herdsmen or devoted to raising sheep or cattle

3. (used with regard to idealized country life) idyllically rustic

  Familiarity information: PASTORAL used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PASTORAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A musical composition that evokes rural life

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

idyl; idyll; pastoral; pastorale

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

composition; musical composition; opus; piece; piece of music (a musical work that has been created)

Derivation:

pastoral ((used with regard to idealized country life) idyllically rustic)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A letter from a pastor to the congregation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

letter; missive (a written message addressed to a person or organization)

Derivation:

pastoral (of or relating to a pastor)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A literary work idealizing the rural life (especially the life of shepherds)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

literary composition; literary work (imaginative or creative writing)

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

bucolic; eclogue; idyl; idyll (a short poem descriptive of rural or pastoral life)

Derivation:

pastoral ((used with regard to idealized country life) idyllically rustic)

• PASTORAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or relating to a pastor

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

a pastoral letter

Pertainym:

pastor (a person authorized to conduct religious worship)

Derivation:

pastor (a person authorized to conduct religious worship)

pastoral (a letter from a pastor to the congregation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Relating to shepherds or herdsmen or devoted to raising sheep or cattle

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

bucolic; pastoral

Context example:

a pastoral economy

Pertainym:

shepherd (a herder of sheep (on an open range); someone who keeps the sheep together in a flock)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(used with regard to idealized country life) idyllically rustic

Synonyms:

arcadian; bucolic; pastoral

Context example:

rustic tranquility

Similar:

rural (living in or characteristic of farming or country life)

Derivation:

pastoral (a literary work idealizing the rural life (especially the life of shepherds))

pastoral (a musical composition that evokes rural life)

 Context examples 

"Quite a pastoral state of innocence all round," returned Miss Belle with a shrug.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

No weather seemed to hinder him in these pastoral excursions: rain or fair, he would, when his hours of morning study were over, take his hat, and, followed by his father's old pointer, Carlo, go out on his mission of love or duty—I scarcely know in which light he regarded it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But even then his passion for writing letters was too strong to be resisted; for while we were yet in the height of our excitement, hope, and wonder, the following pastoral note was brought to me from a neighbouring tavern, at which he had called to write it:— MY DEAR SIR, I beg to be allowed to convey, through you, my apologies to your excellent aunt for my late excitement.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

An artist friend fitted her out with his castoff palettes, brushes, and colors, and she daubed away, producing pastoral and marine views such as were never seen on land or sea.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I had set out from Whitcross on a Tuesday afternoon, and early on the succeeding Thursday morning the coach stopped to water the horses at a wayside inn, situated in the midst of scenery whose green hedges and large fields and low pastoral hills (how mild of feature and verdant of hue compared with the stern North- Midland moors of Morton!) met my eye like the lineaments of a once familiar face.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The venerable cathedral towers, and the old jackdaws and rooks whose airy voices made them more retired than perfect silence would have done; the battered gateways, one stuck full with statues, long thrown down, and crumbled away, like the reverential pilgrims who had gazed upon them; the still nooks, where the ivied growth of centuries crept over gabled ends and ruined walls; the ancient houses, the pastoral landscape of field, orchard, and garden; everywhere—on everything—I felt the same serener air, the same calm, thoughtful, softening spirit.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

We drove over to Fifth Avenue, so warm and soft, almost pastoral, on the summer Sunday afternoon that I wouldn't have been surprised to see a great flock of white sheep turn the corner.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)