Definitions

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

  • noun historical The office or remit of a provost, especially with reference to French history.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman provosté.

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Examples

  • The King, who was very zealous for the protection of the common people, found out the whole truth; so he would no longer allow the provosty of Paris to be sold, but gave secure and high wages to those who for the future should hold it.

    The Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville 1906

  • The provosty of Paris used at that time to be sold to the burghers of Paris, or to some of them; and whenever any of them had bought it, then they used to uphold their children and nephews in their lawlessness; for the young men relied on their kinsmen and friends who held the provosty.

    The Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville 1906

  • By reason of the great deeds of injustice and violence which were done in the provosty, the common people durst not live on the King's land, but rather went and dwelt under other provosts and other lords.

    The Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville 1906

  • And then Stephen Boileau was pointed out to him; and he upheld and kept the provosty so well that no malefactor, nor robber, nor murderer, durst abide in Paris but he was presently hanged or ruined: neither kith nor kin, gold nor silver could protect him.

    The Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville 1906

  • a man from the provosty of Paris to watch the preachers, who go about exciting the people against your majesty.

    Chicot the Jester Alexandre Dumas p��re 1836

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