church (chûrch)
n.

1. A building for public, especially Christian worship.
2. often Church
   1. The company of all Christians regarded as a spiritual body.
   2. A specified Christian denomination: the Presbyterian Church.
   3. A congregation.
3. Public divine worship in a church; a religious service: goes to church at Christmas and Easter.
4. The clerical profession; clergy.
5. Ecclesiastical power as distinguished from the secular: the separation of church and state.

tr.v., churched, church·ing, church·es.
To conduct a church service for, especially to perform a religious service for (a woman after childbirth).

adj.
Of or relating to the church; ecclesiastical.

[Middle English chirche, from Old English cirice, ultimately from Medieval Greek kūrikon, from Late Greek kūriakon (dōma), the Lord's (house), neuter of Greek kūriakos, of the lord, from kūrios, lord.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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