HOMILY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Homily

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/hˈɑməli/ Listen

noun

Homily n. (pl. homilies)

A discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience; a serious discourse.

A serious or tedious exhortation in private on some moral point, or on the conduct of life. "As I have heard my father Deal out in his long homilies."

Book of Homilies. A collection of authorized, printed sermons, to be read by ministers in churches, esp. one issued in the time of Edward VI., and a second, issued in the reign of Elizabeth; both books being certified to contain a "godly and wholesome doctrine."

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Etymology of 'Homily'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Homily" Quotes from Famous Books

... door-bell rang violently, and interrupted cousin Bessie's wholesome homily on the social irregularities of the day. As her hands were still buried in flour I started to my feet and answered the hasty summons. A man in ragged attire stood leaning against the outer post of the doorway. His soft hat was slouched over one eye, and his turned-up faded coat-collar but ...

— The Doctor's Daughter • "Vera"

... the sixties of her life, she looked upon the world with the eyes of a vast experience, and found it more sad than she had thought it in youth or middle age. Vanitas vanitatum was the text of many a homily that she delivered, and a certain sadness replaced the sense of malice that had once possessed her. Once more than aggressive, now she had had bestowed upon her in some degree that gift of understanding that engenders sympathy. As she grew older she grew more wise, and was anxious to impart her ...

— Lady Mary Wortley Montague - Her Life and Letters (1689-1762) • Lewis Melville

... pages in his poems," says Moore, "even if perused rapidly, which by their natural tendency toward virtue, or some splendid tribute to the greatness of God's works, or by an explosion of natural piety more touching than any homily, do not entitle him to be admitted in the purest temple of which Christianity may have the keep!"—Moore, ...

— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... adorned; garlands and coronets be set on their heads, precious pearls hanging about their necks; their fingers shine with rings set with precious stones; their dead and stiff bodies are clothed with garments stiff with gold."—Homily against Peril ...

— The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed. • Matthew Holbeche Bloxam

... is, in brief, what during the next six weeks I told that youth, by precept, by homily, and by making the solution so obvious that he could work it ...

— The Forest • Stewart Edward White

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