parish > define

noun

• A local church community.
• The local subdivision of a diocese committed to one pastor. .

• (n.) In Louisiana, a civil division corresponding to a county in other States.
• (n.) An ecclesiastical society, usually not bounded by territorial limits, but composed of those persons who choose to unite under the charge of a particular priest, clergyman or minister; also, loosely, the territory in which the members of a congregation live.
• (n.) That circuit of ground committed to the charge of one parson or vicar or other minister having cure of souls therein.
• (n.) The same district, constituting a civil jurisdiction, with its own officers and regulations, as respects the poor, taxes, etc.
• (a.) Of or pertaining to a parish; parochial; as, a parish church; parish records; a parish priest; maintained by the parish; as, parish poor.