Homilies

1 definition found

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

  Homily \Hom"i*ly\, n.; pl. {Homilies}. [LL. homilia, Gr. ?
     communion, assembly, converse, sermon, fr. ? an assembly, fr.
     ? same; cf. ? together, and ? crowd, cf. ? to press: cf. F.
     hom['e]lie. See {Same}.]
     1. A discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience; a
        serious discourse. --Shak.


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     2. A serious or tedious exhortation in private on some moral
        point, or on the conduct of life.
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              As I have heard my father
              Deal out in his long homilies.        --Byron.
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     {Book of Homilies}. A collection of authorized, printed
        sermons, to be read by ministers in churches, esp. one
        issued in the time of Edward VI., and a second, issued in
        the reign of Elizabeth; -- both books being certified to
        contain a "godly and wholesome doctrine."
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