pulpit
nounUS, UK /ˈpʊlpɪt/ · SC /ˈpʉlpɪt/
Etymology From Middle English pulpit, from Old French pulpite and Latin pulpitum (“platform”). Doublet of pulpitum and polypus. Piecewise doublet of polypod.
10 senses
- 1A raised platform in a church, sometimes enclosed, where…
- 2Activity associated with or usually performed from a…
- 3The preaching profession, office, or role in general…
- 4Preachers collectively; clergy; the priesthood.
- 5An individual or particular preaching position or role…
- 6Bully pulpit.
- 7Any lectern, podium, dais, or platform for an orator or…
- 8The railing at the bow of a boat, which sometimes…
- 9A bow platform for harpooning.
- 10A plane's cockpit.
Christianity A raised platform in a church, sometimes enclosed, where the minister or preacher stands when giving the sermon; also, the lectern on such a platform.
- Always, whether in the pulpit or on the platform, as in private conversation, there is an absolute simplicity about the man and his words; a simplicity, an earnestness, a complete honesty.1915, Russell H. Conwell, Robert Shackleton, chapter IV, in Acres of Diamonds, His Life and Achievements:
- [H]is `Amens' were ejected at the pulpit with the severity of a reprimand.1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 12:
Christianity Metonymically Activity associated with or usually performed from a church pulpit; preaching, sermons, religious teaching.
Christianity Metonymically The preaching profession, office, or role in general; the pastorate, the priesthood, the ministry.
Christianity Metonymically Preachers collectively; clergy; the priesthood.
Christianity Metonymically An individual or particular preaching position or role; a pastorate.
- He seems like too timid a man to fill the pulpit at such a large church.
Broadly Bully pulpit.
Any lectern, podium, dais, or platform for an orator or public speaker.
- [Hooper:] Will you just please go to the end of the pulpit! [Brody:] What for? [Hooper:] I need to have something in the foreground to give it some scale. [Brody:] Foreground, my ass!1975, Peter Benchley, Carl Gottlieb, Jaws:
- In the slang of the Royal Air Force man, the cockpit of his plane is the ‘pulpit’ or ‘office’, the glass covering over it the ‘greenhouse’.1941 March 24, Life, page 85:
- Derived terms
- bully pulpit, Jack-in-the-pulpit, parson-in-the-pulpit, pulpital, pulpited, pulpiteer, pulpiter, pulpitful, pulpitical, pulpitish, pulpitism, pulpitize, pulpitless, pulpitry, wayside pulpit
- Related terms
- ambo