Search Result for "benefice": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. an endowed church office giving income to its holder;
[syn: benefice, ecclesiastical benefice]


VERB (1)

1. endow with a benefice;


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Benefice \Ben"e*fice\, n. [F. b['e]n['e]fice, L. beneficium, a kindness, in LL. a grant of an estate, fr. L. beneficus beneficent; bene well + facere to do. See Benefit.] [1913 Webster] 1. A favor or benefit. [Obs.] --Baxter. [1913 Webster] 2. (Feudal Law) An estate in lands; a fief. [1913 Webster] Note: Such an estate was granted at first for life only, and held on the mere good pleasure of the donor; but afterward, becoming hereditary, it received the appellation of fief, and the term benefice became appropriated to church livings. [1913 Webster] 3. An ecclesiastical living and church preferment, as in the Church of England; a church endowed with a revenue for the maintenance of divine service. See Advowson. [1913 Webster] Note: All church preferments are called benefices, except bishoprics, which are called dignities. But, ordinarily, the term dignity is applied to bishoprics, deaneries, archdeaconries, and prebendaryships; benefice to parsonages, vicarages, and donatives. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Benefice \Ben"e*fice\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Beneficed.] To endow with a benefice. Note: [Commonly in the past participle.] [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

benefice n 1: an endowed church office giving income to its holder [syn: benefice, ecclesiastical benefice] v 1: endow with a benefice
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

BENEFICE, eccles. law. In its most extended sense, any ecclesiastical preferment or dignity; but in its more limited sense, it is applied only to rectories and vicarages.