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esired; to make entreaty or supplication; to offer prayer to a deity or divine being as a religious act; specifically, to address the Supreme Being with adoration, confession, supplication, and thanksgiving. And to his goddess pitously he preyde. Chaucer. When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shu…

laim or publish tidings; specifically, to proclaim the gospel; to discourse publicly on a religious subject, or from a text of Scripture; to deliver a sermon. How shall they preach, except they be sent Rom. x. 15. From that time Jesus began to preach. Matt. iv. 17.

One who preaches; one who discourses publicly on religious subjects. How shall they hear without a preacher Rom. x. 14.

The act of delivering a religious discourse; the art of sermonizing; also, a sermon; a public religious discourse; serious, earnest advice. Milner. Preaching cross, a cross, sometimes surmounting a pulpit, erected out of doors to designate a preaching place. -- Preaching friars. See Dominican.

A religious harangue; a sermon; -- used derogatively. Shak.

A religious house of the Knights Templars, subordinate to the temple or principal house of the order in London. See Commandery, n., 2.

notoriety in evil; as, preëminence in honor. The preëminence of Christianity to any other religious scheme. Addison. Painful preëminence! yourself to view Above life's weakness, and its comforts too. Pope. Beneath the forehead's walled preëminence. Lowell.

One of a religious order of regular canons founded by St. Norbert at Prémontré, in France, in 1119. The members of the order are called also White Canons, Norbertines, and Premonstrants.

riestly policy; the policy of a priesthood; esp., in an ill sense, fraud or imposition in religious concerns; management by priests to gain wealth and power by working upon the religious motives or credulity of others. It is better that men should be governed by priestcraft than by violence. Macaulay.…

urch service, containing the little office of the Virgin Mary; also, a work of elementary religious instruction. The primer, or office of the Blessed Virgin. Bp. Stillingfleet.

A religious house presided over by a prior or prioress; -- sometimes an offshoot of, an subordinate to, an abbey, and called also cell, and obedience. See Cell, 2.

making it, -- such as those made by a client to his legal adviser, or by persons to their religious or medical advisers. (b) A communication which does not expose the party making it to indictment for libel, -- such as those made by persons communicating confidentially with a government, persons consulted confidentiall…

consecrated; hence, relating to matters other than sacred; secular; -- opposed to sacred, religious, or inspired; as, a profane place. "Profane authors." I. Disraeli. The profane wreath was suspended before the shrine. Gibbon.

The act of entering, or becoming a member of, a religious order.

ity or condition; -- applied to individuals, communities, or the race; as, social, moral, religious, or political progress.

To give instruction in religious matters; to interpret or explain Scripture or religious subjects; to preach; to exhort; to expound. Ezek. xxxvii. 7.

A statement of religious doctrine; an article of faith; creed; as, the propositions of Wyclif and Huss. Some persons . . . change their propositions according as their temporal necessities or advantages do turn. Jer. Taylor.

A new convert especially a convert to some religion or religious sect, or to some particular opinion, system, or party; thus, a Gentile converted to Judaism, or a pagan converted to Christianity, is a proselyte. Ye [Scribes and Pharisees] compass sea and land to make one proselyte. Matt. xxiii. 15. Fresh confidence the…

The act or practice of proselyting; the making of converts to a religion or a religious sect, or to any opinion, system, or party. They were possessed of a spirit of proselytism in the most fanatical degree. Burke.

interests of his people at Rome; also, a cardinal who has the same relation to a college, religious order, etc. Lord Protector (Eng. Hist.), the title of Oliver Cromwell as supreme governor of the British Commonwealth (1653-1658).