priest

noun

1. A religious clergyman (clergywoman, clergyperson) who is trained to perform services or sacrifices at a church or temple.

   “The priest at the Catholic church heard his confession.”

   “The Shinto priest burnt incense for his ancestors.”

   “The Israelite priests were descended from Moses' brother Aaron.”

   “It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.”

   “The church was tighening up on matters sexual. Until the middle of the tenth century it had been quite routine for priests to be married.”

2. A blunt tool, used for quickly stunning and killing fish.

   “They flop and struggle, but she unhooks them swiftly, stunning them with a small brass priest.”

3. (Mormonism)The highest office in the Aaronic priesthood.

verb

1. (transitive)To ordain as a priest.

   “If there bee any lasie fellow, any that cannot away with worke, any that would wallow in pleasures, hee is hastie to be priested. And when hee is made one, and has gotten a benefice, he consorts with his neighbour priests, who are altogether given to pleasures; and then both hee, and they, live, not like Christians, but like epicures; drinking, eating, feasting, and revelling, till the cow come home, as the saying is.”

   “He was deaconed on the 23rd May, and priested on the 29th September, 1624, by John, Bishop of Sodar and Man.”

   “Chapman was a lay missionary and was not deaconed until 1844 and priested in 1852.”

   “Thus, Samuel Seabury... was deaconed by the Bishop of Lincoln and priested by the Bishop of Carlisle.”

name

1. A surname.