pulpit

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An elevated platform, lectern, or stand used in preaching or conducting a religious service.
• noun Clerics considered as a group.
• noun The ministry of preaching.
• noun An elevated metal guardrail extending around the bow or stern of a yacht or other small vessel.
• noun An elevated platform, such as one used by harpooners in a whaling boat.
• noun A bully pulpit.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To place in or supply with a pulpit.
• noun A rostrum or elevated platform from which a speaker addresses an audience or delivers an oration; specifically, in the Christian church, an elevated and more or less inclosed platform from which the preacher delivers his sermon and, in churches of many denominations, conducts the service.
• noun A bow of iron lashed to the end of the bowsprit of a whaling-vessel, and forming a support for the waist of the harpooner, to insure his safety.
• Of or pertaining to the pulpit or preachers and their teaching: as, pulpit eloquence; pulpit utterances.
• noun In mech.: The elevated platform or gallery from which the operation of a large central electrical station for power or lighting is supervised.
• noun A raised platform on which the operator of a machine stands so that he may oversee the machine as it works, or the process as it advances.

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

• adjective Of or pertaining to the pulpit, or preaching
• noun An elevated place, or inclosed stage, in a church, in which the clergyman stands while preaching.
• noun The whole body of the clergy; preachers as a class; also, preaching.
• noun A desk, or platform, for an orator or public speaker.

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

• noun A raised platform in a church, usually enclosed, where the minister or preacher stands to conduct the sermon.
• noun nautical The railing at the bow of a boat, which sometimes extends past the deck. It is sometimes referred to as bow pulpit. The railing at the stern of the boat is sometimes referred to as as stern pulpit; other texts use the perhaps more appropriate term pushpit.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it