Word.ws English Dictionary

hedge priest

hedge priest noun: an ignorant itinerant priest.

Noun

hedge priest (plural hedge priests)

  1. (historical) An ignorant itinerant priest.
    • The Pedant, the Bragart, the Hedge-Prieſt, the Foole, and the Boy. / Abate throw at Nouum, and the whole world againe, / Cannot picke out fiue ſuch, take each one in his vaine.c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby...
    • HEDGEPRIEST, an illiterate unbenificed curate, a patrico.[1785, Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

Forms of hedge priest

pluralhedge priests

Origin of hedge priest

From hedge (“third-rate”) + priest. To imply such a priest "plying one's trade under a hedge." Compare hedge alehouse, hedge whore.

Questions about hedge priest

What does hedge priest mean?
Hedge priest means an ignorant itinerant priest.
What part of speech is hedge priest?
Hedge priest is a noun.
What is the plural of hedge priest?
The plural of hedge priest is hedge priests.

Words near hedge priest in the dictionary

  1. hedge one's bets
  2. hedge parsley
  3. hedge parson
  4. hedge parsons
  5. hedge popping
  6. hedge priest
  7. hedge priests
  8. hedge rider
  9. hedge riders
  10. hedge riding
  11. hedge school

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hedge priest (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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