Profound respect and esteem mingled with fear and affection, as for a holy being or place; the disposition to revere; veneration. If thou be poor, farewell thy reverence. Chaucer. Reverence, which is the synthesis of love and fear. Coleridge. When discords, and quarrels, and factions, are carried openly and audaciously, it is a sign the reverence of government islost. Bacon.
The act of revering; a token of respect or veneration; an obeisance. Make twenty reverences upon receiving . . . about twopence. Goldsmith. And each of them doeth all his diligence To do unto the feast reverence. Chaucer.
That which deserves or exacts manifestations of reverence; reverend character; dignity; state. I am forced to lay my reverence by. Shak.
A person entitled to be revered; -- a title applied to priests or other ministers with the pronouns his or your; sometimes poetically to a father. Shak. Save your reverence, Saving your reverence, an apologetical phrase for an unseemly expression made in the presence of a priest or clergyman. -- Sir reverence, a contracted form of Save your reverence. Such a one as a man may not speak of, without he say. "Sir reverence." Shak. -- To do reverence, to show reverence or honor; to perform an act of reverence. Now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence. Shak.
To regard or treat with reverence; to regard with respect and affection mingled with fear; to venerate. Let . . . the wife see that she reverence her husband. Eph. v. 33. Those that I reverence those I fear, the wise. Shak.
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