bishop
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: bĭsh'əp
ipa: /ˈbɪʃəp/
Forms: form: bishops
form: bishoping
form: bishopping
form: bishoped
form: bishoped
form: bishopped
form: bishopped
form: byshop
Etymology: From Middle English bischop, bishop, bisshop, biscop, from Old English bisċop (“bishop”), from Proto-West Germanic *biskop, from Vulgar Latin (e)biscopus, from classical Latin episcopus (“overseer, supervisor”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “overseer”), from ἐπί (epí, “over”) + σκοπός (skopós, “watcher”), used in Greek and Latin both generally and as a title of civil officers. Cognate with all European terms for the position in various Christian churches; compare bisp.
Senses: examples: text: Se bisceop biþ gesett... to bisceopgenne cild.
ref: c. 1000, Thorpe's Laws, II. 348 (Bosw.)
text: Wanne the bisschop, bisschopeth the
Tokene of marke he set on the.
ref: c. 1315, Shoreham, section 5:
text: The Marquis of Buckingham and his wife were both bishopped, or confirmed by the Bishop of London.
ref: 1622, W. Yonge, Diary, published 1848, section 50:
text: Harding and Saunders Bishop it in England.
ref: 1655, T. Fuller, Church-hist. Brit., ix. 81:
text: Here too physical effects were vulgarly attributed to the ceremony… as evidenced by the case of the old Norfolk woman who claimed to have been ‘bishopped’ seven times, because she found it helped her rheumatism.
ref: 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 35:
topics: Christianity
glosses: To act as a bishop, to perform the duties of a bishop, especially to confirm another's membership in the church.
examples: text: Why sent they it by Felton to be bishoped at Paules?
ref: 1596, W. Warner, Albions Eng., x. liv. 243:
text: He... chose to bear The Name of Fool confirm'd, and Bishop'd by the Fair.
ref: 1700, Boccaccio, “Cymon & Iphigenia”, in John Dryden, transl., Fables, section 550:
topics: Christianity
glosses: To act as a bishop, to perform the duties of a bishop, especially to confirm another's membership in the church.
To confirm (in its other senses).
qualifier: jocularly
examples: text: 1549, H. Latimer, 2nd Serm. before Kynges Maiestie, 5th Serm. sig. Pviv
Thys hathe bene often tymes... sene in preachers before they were byshoppyd or benificed.
text: There may be other... matters to occupy the thoughts of one about to be bishopped.
ref: 1861 November 23, Sat. Rev., 537
topics: Christianity
glosses: To make a bishop.
examples: text: Italy would be well bishoped if her episcopacy... did not exceed fifty-nine.
ref: 1865 December 6, Daily Telegraph, 5/3
topics: Christianity
glosses: To provide with bishops.
examples: text: If the porage be burned to, or the meate ouer rosted, we say the bishop hath put his foote in the potte or the bishop hath played the cooke, because the bishops burn who they lust and whosoever displeaseth them.
ref: ante''' 1536, Tyndale, Works, 166 (T.)
text: It will be as bad as the Bishops foot in the broth.
ref: 1641, John Milton, Animadversions, section 9:
text: The Cream is burnt to.
Betty. Why, Madam, the Bishop has set his Foot in it.
ref: 1738, Compl. Coll. Genteel Conversat., Jonathan Swift, section 10:
text: She canna stomach it if it's bishopped e'er so little.
ref: 1863, E. C. Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, I. 64:
text: Th' milk's bishopped again!
ref: 1875, Lanc. Gloss., section 40:
glosses: To permit food (especially milk) to burn while cooking (from bishops' role in the inquisition or as mentioned in the quotation below, of horses).
examples: text: 1727, R. Bradley, Family Dict. at "Horse"
This way of making a Horse look young is... called Bishoping.
text: Bishopped, or To bishop. A term among horſe dealers, for burning the mark into a horſe's tooth, after he has loſt it by age... It is a common ſaying of milk that is burnt to, that the biſhop has fet his foot in it. Formerly, when a biſhop paſſed through a village, all the inhabitants ran out of their houſes to ſolicit his bleſſing, even leaving their milk, &c. on the fire, to take its chance; which, when burnt to, was ſaid to be biſhopped.
ref: 1788, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 2nd edition, Francis Grose:
text: I found his teeth had been filed down and bishoped with the greatest neatness and perfection.
ref: 1840, E. E. Napier, Scenes & Sports Foreign Lands, I. v. 138:
glosses: To make a horse seem younger, particularly by manipulation of its teeth.
raw_tags: of equestrianism
Derived terms: bishop it