PARISH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does parish mean? 

• PARISH (noun)
  The noun PARISH has 2 senses:

1. a local church community

2. the local subdivision of a diocese committed to one pastor

  Familiarity information: PARISH used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PARISH (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)

 Context examples 

They have been buried, I suppose, in the parish church. There you must look for the banners and the achievements.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“Your parish there was small,” said Jane.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Her father had no ward, and the squire of the parish no children.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

My only doubt is, whether anything could persuade him to leave his parish.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

“Aye, and it is a road that I know as I know the Midhurst parish butts,” quoth the bowman.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It seemed one of the longest quarters of an hour that I had ever known before the first stroke of nine boomed from the parish clock.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“We are devil-ridden, Mr. Holmes! My poor parish is devil-ridden!” he cried.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Last year I came up to London for the Jubilee, and I stopped at a boarding-house in Russell Square, because Parker, the vicar of our parish, was staying in it.

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

Her home and her housekeeping, her parish and her poultry, and all their dependent concerns, had not yet lost their charms.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I am but the incumbent of a poor country parish: my aid must be of the humblest sort.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)