Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to a prebend or a prebendary.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a prebend; holding a prebend.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a prebend; prebendary.
  • adjective Having an associated prebend.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to an honorary religious title granted by the state.
  • adjective Of or relating to official positions that are profitable for the incumbent, to the allocation of such positions, or to a system in which such allocation is prevalent.
  • adjective politics Relating to political patronage.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin praebenda ("the support or allowance afforded by the State to a private person")

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Examples

  • Mr. Harte is returned in perfect health from Cornwall, and has taken possession of his prebendal house at Windsor, which is a very pretty one.

    Letters to his son on The Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman 2005

  • At twenty-four he had been a deacon, at twenty - seven a priest, at thirty a rector, and at thirty-five a prebendary; and as his rectory was rich and his prebendal stall well paid, the Rev. Augustus Horne was called by all, and called himself, a happy man.

    Tales of all countries 2004

  • He held a prebendal stall in the diocese, one of the best residences in the close, and the two large rectories of Crabtree Canonicorum and

    Barchester Towers 2004

  • She feared that Greek from Chaldicotes, even when he came with the present of a prebendal stall in his hands.

    Framley Parsonage 2004

  • His rectories were inhabited by his curates, and he felt himself from disuse to be unfit for parochial duty; but his prebendal home was kept empty for him, and he thought it probable that he might be able now and again to preach a prebendal sermon.

    Barchester Towers 2004

  • He could not but feel, he said, that he had received the prebendal stall from the hands of Mr Sowerby; and under such circumstances, considering all that had happened, he could not be easy in his mind as long as he held it.

    Framley Parsonage 2004

  • It therefore came to light that Mr. Jobbles had found that his clerical position was hardly compatible with a seat at a lay board, and he retired to the more congenial duties of a comfortable prebendal stall at Westminster.

    The Three Clerks 2004

  • But then, as to that house at Barchester, the dignified prebendal mansion in the close — might they not be allowed to leave it unoccupied for one year longer — perhaps to let it?

    Framley Parsonage 2004

  • Stanhope, who also fills the prebendal stall of Goosegorge in

    The Warden 2004

  • His father had held a prebendal stall at Ely in times when prebendal stalls were worth more than they are at present, and having also been possessed of a living in the neighbourhood, had amassed a considerable sum of money.

    Can You Forgive Her? 1993

Comments

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  • The clergy, too, were not forgotten in my charities. Lesser preferments were in my gift; everything up to prebendal stalls and collegiate dignities.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 8 ch. 9

    October 7, 2008