See Also: priest(dictionary)
priest(medicine)
priest(dictionary)
high priest(medicine)
high priest(dictionary)
Saint Just Priest's Cove Beach(tourism)
hunter(dictionary)
Hunter(medicine)
hunter(dictionary)
Bargain Hunter(money)

Hunter, William (sh) and priest (iou)


Hunter, William (sh)




born May 23, 1718, Long Calderwood, Lanarkshire, Scot.
died March 30, 1783, London, Eng.

British obstetrician, educator, and medical writer.

The brother of John Hunter, he studied medicine at the University of Glasgow and became a licensed physician in London in 1756. He introduced the French practice of providing individual medical students with cadavers for dissection to Britain. After 1756 his medical practice was devoted principally to obstetrics; he became the most successful specialist of his day and was made physician extraordinary to Queen Charlotte in 1762. His work did much to remove obstetrics from the purview of midwives and establish it as an accepted branch of medicine.


priest (iou)



priest noun & verb. [pri:st]
[Old English preost corresp. to Old High German priast, prest, Old Norse prestr, from base of Old Frisian prestere, Old Saxon, Old High German prester (Middle & mod. Dutch, Middle High German, German Priester), ult. from ecclesiastical Latin PRESBYTER (whence Old French prestre: see PRESTER JOHN).]
A. noun.
I.
Christian Church.
a. In the episcopal Churches, a member of the second order of the ministry, ranking above deacons and below bishops and having authority to perform certain rites and administer certain sacraments; spec. a celebrant of the Eucharist or Other sacerdotal office. OE.
J. H. Blunt The chief sacerdotal function of the Christian priest is to offer up..the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
b. In the early Church, a presbyter. rare. LME-M16.
gen. A clergyman, a minister of Religion. OE.
An official minister of a Religion Other than Christianity, esp. one performing public religious (spec. sacrificial) functions. OE.
Tennyson The Priest in horror about his altar To Thor and Odin lifted a hand.
b. = PRIESTESS. rare. L16-E17.
fig. Christ regarded as a mediator and offerer of sacrifice on behalf of humankind. ME.
b. (A member of) the Christian Church regarded as the body of Christ, sharing the mediating and sacrificial character of Christ. LME.
A person whose function is likened to that of a priest; a devotee or minister of a practice or thing. L17.
Wordsworth The Youth..still is Nature's Priest.
II.
Angling. A mallet etc. for killing caught fish. M19.
Phrases: transf. be a person's priest (long rare or obsolete) preside over or cause a person's death (with allus. to a priest's function in performing the last rites. poor priests: see POOR adjective. SEM priest. seminary priest: see SEMINARY noun1 4b. SPOILED priest.
Comb.: priest-cap (a) a cap worn by a priest; (b) Fortification an outwork with three salient and two re-entrant angles; priestcraft (a) the Training, knowledge, and work of a priest; (b) derog. the self-interested policies, practice, and influence attributed to some priests; priest-ridden adjective (derog.) managed or controlled by a priest or priests; priest's hole Hist. a concealed room or Other hiding place for a Roman Catholic priest in times of religious persecution; priest's pintle (now dial.) (a) cuckoo-pint, Arum maculatum; (b) the early purple orchid, Orchis mascula; priest-shire Hist. (rare) a district to which a priest ministered, a parish.
b. verb.
verb intrans. & trans. (with it). Exercise the ministry or functions of a priest. LME-M17.
verb trans. Make (a person) a priest; ordain to the priesthood. E16.
E. Saintsbury Ordained deacon in the Church of England but..never priested.
verb trans. Bless or serve as a priest. rare. E17.
priestdom noun (rare) (a) the office of priest, priesthood; (b) rule or government by priests: E16.
priesti'anity noun (derog., rare) a priestly system or doctrine E18.
priestless adjective ME.
priestlike adjective & adverb (a) adjective of, pertaining to, resembling, characteristic of, or befitting a priest; (b) adverb (rare) in a priestly manner: LME.
priestling noun (derog.) (a) a young, small, or insignificant priest; (b) a weak or servile follower of a priesthood: E17.
priestship noun (now rare) the office of priest, the function of a priest E17.