PARISH

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A local church community

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

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

community (a group of people living in a particular local area)

Meronyms (members of "parish"):

parishioner (a member of a parish)

Derivation:

parochial (relating to or supported by or located in a parish)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The local subdivision of a diocese committed to one pastor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

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

jurisdiction (in law; the territory within which power can be exercised)

Holonyms ("parish" is a part of...):

bishopric; diocese; episcopate (the territorial jurisdiction of a bishop)

Derivation:

parochial (relating to or supported by or located in a parish)

Credits

Context examples:

If thinks must go contrary with me, and I must go contrary myself, let me go contrary in my parish.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Between it and the town there is another church, the parish one, round which is a big graveyard, all full of tombstones.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

No, sir, Dr. Becher is an Englishman, and there isn’t a man in the parish who has a better-lined waistcoat.

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

He is the curate of the parish I dare say.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

When you spoke last night of taking precautions I remember that it passed through my mind that this was probably the last parish in England to which the thief or thieves would be likely to turn their attention—which shows that I have still much to learn.

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

My eldest uncle John had left me an estate in land, near Epping, of about thirty pounds a-year; and I had a long lease of the Black Bull in Fetter-Lane, which yielded me as much more; so that I was not in any danger of leaving my family upon the parish.

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

The war is over, and Mr. March safely at home, busy with his books and the small parish which found in him a minister by nature as by grace, a quiet, studious man, rich in the wisdom that is better than learning, the charity which calls all mankind 'brother', the piety that blossoms into character, making it august and lovely.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Henry Crawford was gone, gone from the house, and within two hours afterwards from the parish; and so ended all the hopes his selfish vanity had raised in Maria and Julia Bertram.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I had a few lines on parish business from Mr. Weston this morning, and at the end of them he gave me a brief account of what had happened.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

His eyes were black an' his hair was red an' his voice like the parish bull.