pastoral
pastoral
Definition
pas·to·ral (--əl)
adjective
- of shepherds or their work, way of life, etc.
- of or portraying rural life or, formerly, a highly conventionalized form of rustic life among shepherds, usually in an idealized way
- of pastoral literature or a pastoral
- characteristic of rural life, idealized as peaceful, simple, and natural
- of or relating to a pastor
Etymology: ME pastoralle < L pastoralis < pastor, a shepherd: see pastor
noun
- a piece of literature dealing, usually in an idealized way, with rural life; formerly, specif., a poem, play, etc. treating the rustic lives and loves of shepherds in a conventionalized, artificial manner
- such writing as a literary form
- a pastoral picture or scene
- an official letter or document, as on doctrine or religious observance, issued by a bishop or group of bishops to persons within their jurisdiction
- Music pastorale
pas′·to·ral·ism′ noun
pas′·to·rally adverb
pastoral
Synonyms
pastoral
Synonyms
pastoral
Usage Examples
Used with adjective complement
- provide: It works for the spiritual and social welfare of all seafarers providing pastoral, practical outreach.
Modifies a noun
- ministry: I've spent a fair bit of my pastoral ministry dealing with people whose problems were produced by religion.
- idyll: The area inspired the Hudson River School of painting, a sort of early American pastoral idyll.
- care: Cells are the way we organize pastoral care within the church.
- oversight: John Wesley, under the pastoral oversight of itinerant ministers who met at an annual conference.
- theology: He is also engaged in part time doctoral work at London Bible College in the area of pastoral theology.
- epistle: Now remember I told you that " godliness " is a key word in the pastoral epistles.
Modifying Another Word
- predominantly: More recently, however, a distinction has arisen between the predominantly pastoral economy in the west and the arable fields of the east.
- very: Then there's the instrumental ' The Return of Spring ' , a very pastoral uplifting piece of folky rock.
- almost: The high trees behind made it all appear very organic, almost pastoral.
- mainly: These can be expected to have been mainly pastoral settlements exploiting what by now were impoverished moorland, much as today.
- essentially: Indications are that farming practice was essentially pastoral except during climatic optima.
- entirely: Most of the work of the District Council is entirely pastoral.
Preposition: in
pastoral Quotes
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
No writer before the middle of the19th century wrote about the working classes other thanasgrotesques oras pastoral decorations. Then when they were given the vote certain writers started to suck up to them.
Browse dictionary entries near pastoral
- pastor
- pastis
- pastiness
- pastina
- pastime
- pastille
- pasties
- pastie
- pasticheur
- pastiche
- pastorale
- pastoralist
- pastorate
- pastorium
- pastrami
- pastry
- pastry bag
- pasturable
- pasturage
- pasture
