rectory
[rek-tuh-ree]
- a rector's house; parsonage.
- British. a benefice held by a rector.
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Origin of rectory
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for rectory
Contemporary Examples
They followed Weber into the rectory to find Freed sprawled and unresponsive, amid signs of a forced entry and a violent struggle.
He sat behind his desk in the rectory, and the magnitude of what had happened came over him.
First, Father Johannes Baptiste is found in the rectory, his throat slit.
A SWAT team converged on the rectory, which is less than a mile from the town square.
In the rectory Pfleger blamed a “perfect storm” of unemployment, failing schools, and program cutbacks for the surge in shootings.
Historical Examples
Doltimore, Legard, names new to me; I never met them at the rectory.
Alice, or The Mysteries, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
How is it, Maltravers, that they see so little of you at the rectory?
Alice, or The Mysteries, CompleteEdward Bulwer-Lytton
The Rectory gate clicked sharply as it swung to behind the labourer.
The Incomplete AmoristE. Nesbit
The rectory was often surrounded by a moat, with an entrance protected by a gatehouse.
English VillagesP. H. Ditchfield
It would not be more than ten or twelve miles, and so I should get a peep of the rectory.
Wilfrid CumbermedeGeorge MacDonald
rectory
- the official house of a rector
- Church of England the office and benefice of a rector
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for rectory
n.
mid-15c., from French rectorie (14c.) or Medieval Latin rectoria, from rector (see rector). Originally "benefice held by a rector;" of his residence, from 1849.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper