vestry
Americannoun
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vestries
plural
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a room in or a building attached to a church, in which the vestments, and sometimes liturgical objects, are kept; sacristy.
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(in some churches) a room in or a building attached to a church, used as a chapel, for prayer meetings, for the Sunday school, etc.
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Episcopal Church. a committee elected by members of a congregation to serve with the churchwardens in managing the temporal affairs of the church.
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Church of England. a meeting attended by all the parishioners or by a committee of parishioners during which the official business of the church is discussed.
noun
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a room in or attached to a church in which vestments, sacred vessels, etc, are kept
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a room in or attached to some churches, used for Sunday school, meetings, etc
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Church of England
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a meeting of all the members of a parish or their representatives, to transact the official business of the parish
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the body of members meeting for this; the parish council
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Episcopal Church Anglican Church a committee of vestrymen chosen by the congregation to manage the temporal affairs of their church
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of vestry
1350–1400; Middle English vestrie, vestrye. See vest (v.), -ery
Vocabulary lists containing vestry
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But the church has worked with the Bats in Churches team to find a solution - they've built a sealed-off loft conversion above the vestry.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2025
Doreen Golding, 83, the Pearly Queen of Bow Bells and the Old Kent Road, shouted to the group as she led the way to the church vestry.
From New York Times ● Apr. 29, 2023
A week later, it was performed by Elizabeth John in the vestry of Tabor Chapel in Maesteg, Bridgend county.
From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2022
She was a member of St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in McLean, Va., where she also served on the vestry and was in the choir.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 15, 2022
Julian and he were talking—in jocular, mocking, pedantic Latin—like a couple of priests tidying the vestry before a mass.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
In the most affluent parishes, vestries levied taxes to construct substantial churches and fill their pulpits with ministers who blessed the planters’ power.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
Long associated with fire stations, country stores and farmers' kitchens, cribbage has lately crawled into business offices and church vestries.
From Time Magazine Archive
The campaign lasted twenty-nine days, during which ninety-two public meetings were held, some in parlors but most in halls, vestries and churches.
From The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV by Ida Husted Harper
The vestries, nevertheless, pertinaciously resisted this construction of the law.
From History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia by Charles Campbell
But he also had a powerful curiosity as to what she would say, and her verdict was of more importance to him than that of all the vestries in the land.
From Thirty by Howard Vincent O'Brien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
