church

noun

1. 1

   A Christian house of worship; a building where Christian religious services take place.

   There is a lovely little church in the valley.

   This building used to be a church before being converted into a library.

   He got the message and was in church the next Sunday. We need to stay in church with the fellowship of others in order to keep the fire of faith burning brightly.

   Most are descended from low-caste Hindus who converted in the 19th century, when many of the country’s hundred or so British colonial-era churches were built. […] Built in the shape of a cross, the pink-brick-and-sandstone church soars above Mall Road, the city’s main thoroughfare.

2. 2

   Christians collectively seen as a single spiritual community; Christianity; Christendom.

   These worshippers make up the Church of Christ.

   Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

3. 3

   A local group of people who follow the same Christian religious beliefs, local or general.

   Many young people find their only role models of family life in church.

   He got the message and was in church the next Sunday. We need to stay in church with the fellowship of others in order to keep the fire of faith burning brightly.

   As they actively get involved in ministry, lay ministry becomes vigorous, and new believers will settle in church with more ease.

   she had very many adults in church with whom she could talk about issues in life.

4. 4

   A particular denomination of Christianity.

   The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534.

5. 5

   Christian worship held at a church; service.

   Pastors complained that they were not allowed enough authority in church, with women exercising too much informal control.

   Some people are always saying, "Oh, you have too much church." You never get too much church. I go to church every day.

   the learned women will be qualified to lead in church with equal grace and equal insight and equal gifts.

6. 6

   Organized religion in general or a specific religion considered as a political institution.

   Many constitutions enshrine the separation of church and state.

   But in Muslim countries, Church and State are one indissolubly, and until the very essence of Islam passes away, that unity cannot be relaxed. The law of the land, too, is, in theory, the law of the Church.

   Because the pan-Buddhist movement was heavily supported by the Japanese in Inner Mongolia, the Buddhist church, already under attack by Soviet-backed antireligion campaigns in Outer Mongolia, was further damaged […]

   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.

7. 7

   informalAny religious group or place of worship; a temple.

   She goes to a Wiccan church down the road.

   Among these, the church must investigate fundemental questions, […]

8. 8

   obsoleteAssembly.

verb

1. 1

   historicalTo conduct a religious service for (a woman after childbirth, or a newly married couple).

   Thenne after this lady was delyuerd and chirched / there came a knyghte vnto her / his name was sire Bromel la pleche / the whiche was a grete lord and he hadde loued that lady longe / and he euermore desyred her to wedde her / and soo by no meane she coude putte hym of

   Nor did it [the Church] accept that the woman should stay indoors until she had been churched.

2. 2

   To educate someone religiously, as in a church.

   “we’re mighty glad to have you all here. Don’t pay no ‘tention to Lula, she’s contentious because Reverend Sykes threatened to church her. She’s a troublemaker from way back, got fancy ideas an’ haughty ways—we’re mighty glad to have you all.”

interjection

1. 1

   slangUsed to express strong agreement.

   – These burritos are the best! – Church!

Forms

plural

churches

past tense

churched

past participle

churched

present participle

churching

third person singular

churches