Glebe

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Glebe \Glebe\, n. [F. gl[`e]be, L. gleba, glaeba, clod, land,
     soil.]
     1. A lump; a clod.
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     2. Turf; soil; ground; sod.


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              Fertile of corn the glebe, of oil, and wine.
                                                    --Milton.
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     3. (Eccl. Law) The land belonging, or yielding revenue, to a
        parish church or ecclesiastical benefice.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  glebe
       n : plot of land belonging to an English parish church or an
           ecclesiastical office

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  GLEBE, eccl. law. The land which belongs to a church. It is the dowry of the 
  church. Gleba est terra qua consistit dos ecclesiae. Lind. 254; 9 Cranch, 
  Rep. 329. In the civil law it signified the soil of an inheritance; there 
  were serfs of the glebe, called gleboe addicti. Code, 11, 47, 7 et 21; Nov. 
  54, c. 1.