creed

noun

1. 1

   That which is believed; accepted doctrine, especially religious doctrine; a particular set of beliefs; any summary of principles or opinions professed or adhered to.

   Holonyms: belief system, cosmology

   Near-synonym: dogma

   Oh! who young Leila's glance could read / And keep that portion of his creed / Which saith, that woman is but dust, / A soulless toy for tyrant's lust?

   Man, being the child of imitation, has a general tendency in life and in religion to follow the creed and tastes of his fathers, whether in the ways of wisdom or folly—perhaps more readily in the latter.

2. 2

   A reading or statement of belief that summarizes the faith it represents; a confession of faith for public use, especially one which is brief and comprehensive.

   A creed is a manifesto of religious or spiritual beliefs

   [N]ow ſuch a liue vngodly, vvithout a care of doing the wil of the Lord (though they profeſſe him in their mouths, yea though they beleeue and acknowledge all the Articles of the Creed, yea haue knowledge of the Scripturs) yet if they liue vngodly, they deny God, and therefore ſhal be denied, […]

   The Apostles' Creed was not the only creed to come into existence in the period of the early church. However, it is the oldest and simplest creed of the church. All Christian traditions recognize its authority and its importance as a standard of doctrine. To study the Apostles' Creed is to investigate a central element of our common Christian heritage.

3. 3

   rareThe fact of believing; belief, faith.

   Oh love! how perfect is thy mystic art, / Strengthening the weak, and trampling on the strong, / How self-deceitful is the sagest part / Of mortals whom thy lure hath led along— / The precipice she stood on was immense, / So was her creed in her own innocence.

verb

1. 1

   obsoleteTo believe; to credit.

   Only this I marvelled, and other men have since, whenas I, in a ſubject ſo new to this age, and ſo hazardous to pleaſe, concealed not my name, why this author, defending that part which is ſo creeded by the people, would conceal his.

   And ſo, no doubt, were his other Preferments as acceptable, which did require ſuch Athanaſsian Subſcriptions, &c. and which he in an Athanaſian Form ſubſcrib'd, creeded, and worſhip'd for till his dying-day.

   'I was n't for creeding me awn e'en,' believing my own eyes.

2. 2

   To provide with a creed.

   The poor like Priests—Priests utilise the poor; / High Church the common people feeding / Exclaims—"You Low Church indolents observe / How we go about leavening and creeding!"

   Especially in the studies of religions less creeded than Christianity scholars have long insisted on the importance in religion of sacred stories.

Forms

plural

creeds

past tense

creeded

past participle

creeded

present participle

creeding

third person singular

creeds