bishop
Forms
- Plural
- bishops
- present (v1)
- bishop
- past (v2)
- bishoped
- past participle (v3)
- bishoped
- present participle
- bishoping
- 3rd person singular
- bishops
Definitions
1.An overseer of congregations: either any such overseer, generally speaking, or (in Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, etc.) an official in the church hierarchy (actively or nominally) governing a diocese, supervising the church's priests, deacons, and property in its territory.
- The Byshop of Egypt is called the Souldan.
- The Caliphaes of the Sarasins were kings and chiefe bishops in their religion.
- These ministers were at first confined to the three orders of bishops, priests, and deacons.
2.A chief of the Festival of Fools or St. Nicholas Day.
3.The chess piece denoted ♗ or ♝ which moves along diagonal lines and developed from the shatranj alfil ("elephant") and was originally known as the aufil or archer in English.
- A Bishop or Archer, who is commonly figured with his head cloven.
- The Bishoppes some name Alphins, some fooles, and some name them Princes; other some call them Archers.
4.Any of various African birds of the genus Euplectes; a kind of weaverbird closely related to the widowbirds.
1.To make a horse seem younger, particularly by manipulation of its teeth.
- I found his teeth had been filed down and bishoped with the greatest neatness and perfection.
2.To murder by drowning.(colloquial)
- I Burked the papa, now I'll Bishop the son.
- There were no more Burking murders until 1831, when two men, named Bishop and Williams, drowned a poor [14-year-old] Italian boy in Bethnal Green, and sold his body to the surgeons.
3.To act as a bishop, to perform the duties of a bishop, especially to confirm another's membership in the church.
- Harding and Saunders Bishop it in England.
- Se bisceop biþ gesett.. to bisceopgenne cild.
- Why sent they it by Felton to be bishoped at Paules?
4.To make a bishop.
- There may be other.. matters to occupy the thoughts of one about to be bishopped.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3435
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English bischop, bishop, bisshop, biscop, from Old English bisċop (“bishop”), from Proto-West Germanic *biskop, from Vulgar Latin (e)biscopus, from classical Latin episcopus (“overseer, supervisor”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “overseer”), from ἐπί (epí, “over”) + σκοπός (skopós, “watcher”), used in Greek and Latin both generally and as a title of civil officers. Cognate with all European terms for the position in various Christian churches; compare also Middle English bisp (“bishop”).