glebe
nounUK /ɡliːb/ · US /ɡlib/
Etymology From Old French glebe, from Latin glaeba (“lump of earth, clod”). Doublet of gleba.
1
Turf; soil; ground; sod.
- 1768, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke
2
Historical In medieval Europe, an area of land, belonging to a parish, whose revenues contributed towards the parish expenses.
3
Poetic A field or meadow.
- Admiring glebes their amber ears unfold, / And Labour sleep amid the waving gold.1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page 151:
- Derived terms
- glebe-farm, glebe farm, glebe-house, glebe-land, glebeless, glebous, gleby
- Related terms
- glaebule