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help on; to benefit; to advantage; to avail; to aid; as, truth profits all men. The word preached did not profit them. Heb. iv. 2. It is a great means of profiting yourself, to copy diligently excellent pieces and beautiful designs. Dryden.

Public interpretation of Scripture; preaching; exhortation or instruction.

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

An elevated place, or inclosed stage, in a church, in which the clergyman stands while preaching. I stand like a clerk in my pulpit. Chaucer.

One who speaks in a pulpit; a preacher; -- so called in contempt. Howell. We never can think it sinful that Burns should have been humorous on such a pulpiteer. Prof. Wilson.

A preacher. [Obs.]

Of or pertaining to the pulpit; like preaching. Chalmers.

The teaching of the pulpit; preaching. [R. & Obs.] " Mere pulpitry." Milton.

alled Quakers, originally, in derision. See Friend, n., 4. Fox's teaching was primarily a preaching of repentance . . . The trembling among the listening crowd caused or confirmed the name of Quakers given to the body; men and women sometimes fell down and lay struggling as if for life. Encyc. Brit.…

of thought; to be noisy, boisterous, and bombastic in talk or declamation; as, a ranting preacher. Look where my ranting host of the Garter comes! Shak.

he United States in 1832 at Detroit. The Fathers of the Congregation devote themselves to preaching to the neglected, esp. in missions and retreats, and are forbidden by their rule to engage in the instruction of youth.

To carry the mind or throught; to direct attention; as, the preacher referrd to the late election.

in a good sense; as, to relapse into slumber after being disturbed. That task performed, [preachers] relapse into themselves. Cowper.

To administer the sacraments. [R.] Both to preach and sacramentize. Fuller.

nterest or emotion; melodramatic; emotional; as, sensational plays or novels; sensational preaching; sensational journalism; a sensational report.

a dissenter; a nonconformist; a schismatic; a sectary. Heavy fines on divines who should preach in any meeting of separatist . Macaulay.

n trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones and good in everything. Shak. His preaching much, but more his practice, wrought, A living sermon of the truths he taught. Dryden.

A preacher; a sermonizer. [Derogative or Jocose.] Thackeray.

The act of discoursing; discourse; instruction; preaching. [Obs.] Chaucer.

To compose or write a sermon or sermons; to preach.