PARSON

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does parson mean? 

• PARSON (noun)
  The noun PARSON has 1 sense:

1. a person authorized to conduct religious worship

  Familiarity information: PARSON used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PARSON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person authorized to conduct religious worship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

curate; minister; minister of religion; parson; pastor; rector

Context example:

clergymen are usually called ministers in Protestant churches

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

clergyman; man of the cloth; reverend (a member of the clergy and a spiritual leader of the Christian Church)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "parson"):

ministrant (someone who serves as a minister)

 Context examples 

A quiet wedding we had: he and I, the parson and clerk, were alone present.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But the parson said, “Woman, thou art surely mad!”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

One does not think of extent here; and between ourselves, till I came to Mansfield, I had not imagined a country parson ever aspired to a shrubbery, or anything of the kind.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Parsons took the wheel, and the pursuit continued.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It would be of no use to go to Uppercross again, for that other Miss Musgrove, I find, is bespoke by her cousin, the young parson.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

They’ve got her, that hell-hound Woodley and the blackguard parson.

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

They, an' all grims an' signs an' warnin's, be all invented by parsons an' illsome beuk-bodies an' railway touters to skeer an' scunner hafflin's, an' to get folks to do somethin' that they don't other incline to.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

As soon as she could pick herself up out of the dirt, she ran off as fast as she could to her master the parson, and said, “Sir, sir, the cow is talking!”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

We did; and, Tedo, you know, I helped you in prosecuting (or persecuting) your tutor, whey-faced Mr. Vining—the parson in the pip, as we used to call him.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He was dressed in rusty black, with a very broad-brimmed top-hat and a loose white necktie—the whole effect being that of a very rustic parson or of an undertaker’s mute.

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