vicar

plural vicars · alternative abbreviation vic.

1. In the Church of England, the priest of a parish, receiving a salary or stipend but not tithes.

   Near-synonyms: priest, rector, curate

   3 more examples

   Hester Earle and Violet Wayne were moving about the aisle with bundles of wheat-ears and streamers of ivy, for the harvest thanksgiving was shortly to be celebrated, while the vicar stood waiting for their directions on the chancel steps with a great handful of crimson gladioli.

   1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC

   All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion[…] such talk had been distressingly out of place.

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

   For this [annual choir outing] the vicar traditionally hired a brake, an ancient, Edwardian, horse-drawn, bus-like vehicle which had plodded along for many years between Ramsgate and Pegwell Bay, carrying passengers who were in no hurry, until it became so unroadworthy that no horse could be persuaded to pull it on a regular basis.

   1997, Frank Muir, chapter 1, in A Kentish Lad, →ISBN

   Synonyms: priest, rector, curate

2. In the Roman Catholic and some other churches, a cleric acting as local representative of a higher ranking member of the clergy.
3. A person acting on behalf of, or representing, another person.

   Near-synonyms: proxy, representative, agent

   Synonyms: proxy, representative, agent