parishes

Noun

parish (plural parishes)

1. (Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy) An administrative part of a diocese that has its own church.
   • With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   vicarate

2. The community attending that church; the members of the parish.

   Synonyms:

   parishioner

3. (US) An ecclesiastical society, usually not bounded by territorial limits, but composed of those persons who choose to unite under the charge of a particular priest, clergyman, or minister; also, loosely, the territory in which the members of a congregation live.
4. A civil subdivision of a British county, often corresponding to an earlier ecclesiastical parish; a similar subdivision in Ireland.
   • Atlantic gales constantly buffet Morwenstow, whose seven hamlets together constitute Cornwall's most northerly parish. The village is dotted with trees moulded into weird shapes by the wind, and above the trees rise the vicarage chimneystacks resembling miniature church towers.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 288

   Synonyms:

   civil parish

5. An administrative subdivision in the U.S. state of Louisiana that is equivalent to a county in other U.S. states.

   Synonyms:

   civil parish

See all 9 meanings of parish