PRIEST

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does priest mean? 

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

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

2. a person who performs religious duties and ceremonies in a non-Christian religion

  Familiarity information: PRIEST used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRIEST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

clergyman; man of the cloth; reverend (a member of the clergy and a spiritual leader of the Christian Church)

Holy Order; Order ((usually plural) the status or rank or office of a Christian clergyman in an ecclesiastical hierarchy)

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

bishop (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)

vicar (a Roman Catholic priest who acts for another higher-ranking clergyman)

priestess (a woman priest)

pontifex (a member of the highest council of priests in ancient Rome)

Monsignor ((Roman Catholic Church) an ecclesiastical title of honor bestowed on some priests)

Father; Padre ('Father' is a term of address for priests in some churches (especially the Roman Catholic Church or the Orthodox Catholic Church); 'Padre' is frequently used in the military)

domestic prelate ((Roman Catholic Church) a priest who is an honorary member of the papal household)

confessor (a priest who hears confession and gives absolution)

celebrant (an officiating priest celebrating the Eucharist)

canon (a priest who is a member of a cathedral chapter)

archpriest; hierarch; high priest; prelate; primate (a senior clergyman and dignitary)

Instance hyponyms:

Aaron ((Old Testament) elder brother of Moses and first high priest of the Israelites; created the golden calf)

Domingo de Guzman; Dominic; Saint Dominic; St. Dominic ((Roman Catholic Church) Spanish priest who founded an order whose members became known as Dominicans or Black Friars (circa 1170-1221))

Derivation:

priesthood (the body of ordained religious practitioners)

priestly (befitting or characteristic of a priest or the priesthood)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who performs religious duties and ceremonies in a non-Christian religion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

non-Christian priest; priest

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

spiritual leader (a leader in religious or sacred affairs)

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

Druid (a pre-Christian priest among the Celts of ancient Gaul and Britain and Ireland)

flamen (a priest who served a particular deity in ancient Rome)

hoodoo (a practitioner of voodoo)

lama (a Tibetan or Mongolian priest of Lamaism)

magus (a member of the Zoroastrian priesthood of the ancient Persians)

priest-doctor; shaman (in societies practicing shamanism: one acting as a medium between the visible and spirit worlds; practices sorcery for healing or divination)

votary (a priest or priestess (or consecrated worshipper) in a non-Christian religion or cult)

Instance hyponyms:

Ezra (a Jewish priest and scribe sent by the Persian king to restore Jewish law and worship in Jerusalem)

Derivation:

priesthood (the body of ordained religious practitioners)

 Context examples 

The others were all obliged to retire to a distance, and when the peasant looked at the priest, he recognized the man who had been with the miller’s wife.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Strike at the noble and the priest shrieks, strike at priest and the noble lays his hand upon glaive.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Sir Thomas,” said Edmund, “undoubtedly understands the duty of a parish priest. We must hope his son may prove that he knows it too.”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

"I'm wishin' there was a priest," he said wistfully; then added swiftly, "But Michael Dennin's too old a campaigner to miss the luxuries when he hits the trail."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

What! a novice not worship her priest!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I spent a few minutes in assisting a venerable Italian priest, who was endeavouring to make a porter understand, in his broken English, that his luggage was to be booked through to Paris.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A courtesy title of reverence, as for church dignitaries, officers of monasteries, monks, confessors, and especially priests.

(Father, NCI Thesaurus)

They consulted their village priest, and the result was that Elizabeth Lavenza became the inmate of my parents’ house—my more than sister—the beautiful and adored companion of all my occupations and my pleasures.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Whether those holy lords I spoke of were always promoted to that rank upon account of their knowledge in religious matters, and the sanctity of their lives; had never been compliers with the times, while they were common priests; or slavish prostitute chaplains to some nobleman, whose opinions they continued servilely to follow, after they were admitted into that assembly?

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

Among other things I exhibited this powder, and I told him of its strange properties, how it stimulates those brain centres which control the emotion of fear, and how either madness or death is the fate of the unhappy native who is subjected to the ordeal by the priest of his tribe.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)