English > English | |
pastoral | |
1. adj. Of or pertaining to shepherds or herders | |
2. adj. Relating to rural life and scenes | |
We were living a pastoral life. | |
* He wanders west as far as Memphis, a solitary migrant upon that flat and pastoral landscape. - 1985 McCarthy, Blood Meridian, chapter | |
* ... these pastoral farms,/Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke / Sent up, in silence, from among the trees! - 1798 Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey, lines 16-18. | |
3. adj. Relating to the care of souls, to the pastor of a church or to any local religious leader charged with the service of individual parishioners, i.e. a priest or rabbi. | |
pastoral duties; a pastoral letter | |
4. n. A poem describing the life and manners of shepherds; a poem in which the speakers assume the character of shepherds; an idyll; a bucolic. | |
5. n. (music) A cantata relating to rural life; a composition for instruments characterized by simplicity and sweetness; a lyrical composition the subject of which is taken from rural life. | |
6. n. (religion, Christianity) A letter of a pastor to his charge; specifically, a letter addressed by a bishop to his diocese. | |
7. n. (religion, Christianity) A letter of the House of Bishops, to be read in each parish. | |