bishop

Meanings

Noun

• An overseer of congregations: either any such overseer, generally speaking, or (in Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, etc.) an official in the church hierarchy (actively or nominally) governing a diocese, supervising the church's priests, deacons, and property in its territory.
• The holder of the Greek or Roman position of episcopus, supervisor over the public dole of grain, etc.
• Any watchman, inspector, or overlooker.
• A chief of the Festival of Fools or St. Nicholas Day.
• The chess piece denoted ♗ or ♝ which moves along diagonal lines and developed from the shatranj alfil ("elephant") and was originally known as the aufil or archer in English.
• Any of various African birds of the genus Euplectes; a kind of weaverbird closely related to the widowbirds.
• A ladybug or ladybird, beetles of the family Coccinellidae.
• A sweet drink made from wine, usually with oranges, lemons, and sugar; mulled and spiced port.
• A bustle.
• A children's smock or pinafore.

Verb

• To act as a bishop, to perform the duties of a bishop, especially to confirm another's membership in the church.
• To make a bishop.
• To provide with bishops.
• To permit food (especially milk) to burn while cooking (from bishops' role in the inquisition or as mentioned in the quotation below, of horses).
• To make a horse seem younger, particularly by manipulation of its teeth.
• To murder by drowning.

Related

Similar words

• diocesan bishop, suffragan bishop
• ordinary, hierarch
• consecrator

Narrower meaning words

• catholicos, major archbishop, patriarch, pope
• archbishop, cardinal, eparch, exarch, metropolitan, metropolitan bishop, primate
• prince-bishop, prince-archbishop, Prince of the Church
• titular bishop
• coadjutor bishop, assistant bishop, auxiliary bishop
• principal consecrator, principal co-consecrator
• bishop emeritus

Origin

• From Middle English bischop, bishop, bisshop, biscop, from Old English bisċop ("bishop"), from British Latin *biscopo or Vulgar Latin biscopus, from classical Latin episcopus ("overseer, supervisor"), from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος ("overseer"), from ἐπί + σκοπός, used in Greek and Latin both generally and as a title of civil officers. Cognate with all European terms for the position in various Christian churches (see below); compare bisp.
• Eponymous, from the surname Bishop.