parish

plural parishes · alternative Scotland obsolete paroch

1. Anglicanism; Eastern Orthodoxy; Anglicanism; Eastern OrthodoxyCatholicismAn administrative part of a diocese that has its own church.

   Near-synonym: vicarate

   1 more example

   With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: vicarate

2. The community attending that church; the members of the parish.

   Synonyms: parishioner

3. USAn ecclesiastical society, usually not bounded by territorial limits, but composed of those persons who choose to unite under the charge of a particular priest, clergyman, or minister; also, loosely, the territory in which the members of a congregation live.
4. In any of various countries, an administrative subdivision of an area, often of a county.
   1. A civil subdivision of a British county, often corresponding to an earlier ecclesiastical parish; a similar subdivision in Ireland.

      Atlantic gales constantly buffet Morwenstow, whose seven hamlets together constitute Cornwall's most northerly parish. The village is dotted with trees moulded into weird shapes by the wind, and above the trees rise the vicarage chimneystacks resembling miniature church towers.

      1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 288

      Synonyms: civil parish, civil parish

   2. An administrative subdivision in the U.S. state of Louisiana that is equivalent to a county in other U.S. states.

      Synonyms: civil parish

present singular third person parishes · participle present parishing · participle past parished · past parished · alternative Scotland obsolete paroch

1. transitiveTo place (an area, or rarely a person) into one or more parishes.

   Dr Whitehead: In your written evidence, you have all in different ways made the distinction between NDOs in parished areas and NDOs in non-parished areas, […]

   2011, Sustainable development in the Localism Bill: third report, →ISBN, page 5

   3 more examples

   […] [m]akes possible, through the aid of the rural ministers, the development of the various phases of the District program, such as (a) Parishing of the District; (b) Interdenominational adjustment in the interest of rural religious advance […]

   1917, Annual Report of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Board of Home Missions and Church Extension, page 70

   Father Malachy, a distant cousin, who was parished somewhere in the depths of Co. Monaghan, sat firmly in the chair in the corner, sipping his tea from a china cup.

   1972, Winter's Tales from Ireland, volume 2, page 55

   Consequently, approaching half of the non-metropolitan population of England is parished (Table 2.2). […] The South West and East Midlands are also particularly well parished while the North West, West Midlands and South East are poorly parished.

   1992, Parish and town councils in England: a survey, pages 17 and 21

2. intransitiveTo visit residents of a parish.

   "Are you going ‘parishing’ this morning?" inquired Diana, as she watched him fill and light his pipe.

   1921, Margaret Pedler, The Splendid Folly, page 46

   3 more examples

   […] a chair immediately opposite to Tressady's place remained vacant. It was being kept for the eldest son of the house, his mother explaining carelessly to Lord Fontenoy that she believed he was "Out parishing somewhere, as usual."

   1896, Mrs. Humphry Ward, Sir George Tressady, volume 1, →ISBN

   "You will take pleasure in parishing. Mother used to parish." "How do you know I like parishing?" "Your uncle said so." "Oh! did he?" "And you may like the rectory people; it's a fine old house, and often full of visitors."

   1903, Maxwell Gray, Richard Rosny, page 210

   In 1916 he was Rector of Hampton Bishop, a village on the River Wye outside Hereford, and one day while “parishing”, as he called visiting his flock, a farmers' wife, a Mrs. Christopher Field, gave him an account of her father's death-bed; […]

   2013, Ann Bridge, Moments of Knowing

present singular third person parishes · participle present parishing · participle past parished · past parished · alternative Scotland obsolete paroch

1. pronunciation spellingPronunciation spelling of perish, representing Mary–marry–merry merger English.

plural Parishes

1. countableuncountableA surname.
2. countableuncountableA town and village therein, in Oswego County, New York, United States.