Priesthood

4 definitions found

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

  Priesthood \Priest"hood\, n.
     1. The office or character of a priest; the priestly
        function. --Bk. of Com. Prayer.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Priests, taken collectively; the order of men set apart


        for sacred offices; the order of priests.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  priesthood
       n : the body of ordained religious practitioners

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  29 Moby Thesaurus words for "priesthood":
     Sacred College, apostleship, call, care of souls, clergy,
     clerical order, clericalism, clericals, episcopalianism,
     holy orders, ministry, pastorage, pastoral care, pastorate,
     prelacy, presbytery, priestery, priestism, priestship, rabbinate,
     sacerdotalism, sacred calling, the church, the cloth, the desk,
     the ministry, the pulpit, ultramontanism, vocation
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  priesthood n. [TMRC; obs.] The select group of system managers
     responsible for the operation and maintenance of a batch computer
     system. On these computers, a user never had direct access to a
     computer, but had to submit his/her data and programs to a priest for
     execution. Results were returned days or even weeks later. See
     {acolyte}.