ˈprayer-book
1. A book of forms of prayer; spec. the Book of Common Prayer, containing the traditional public liturgy of the Church of England.
| 1596–7 in Swayne Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896) 302 Prayer booke 2d. a Salter 4s. 1626–7 Ibid. 312 Common Prayer Booke, 7s. 6d. 1660 Pepys Diary 21 July, I read prayers out of the Common Prayer Book. 1692 W. Marshall Gosp. Myst. Sanctif. xiii. (1764) 283 You must make the whole Scripture your Common-prayer-book, as the primitive Church did. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 284 ¶6, I was almost the only Person that looked in a Prayer-Book all Church-time. 1824 Dibdin Libr. Comp. 42 Editions of Prayer Books, beginning with the first impression in 1549, in folio. 1869 F. Montgomery Misunderstood ii, Finding the places in his prayer-book. 1892 Phillimore Eccl. Law (ed. 2) 710 The second Prayer Book of Edw. VI omitted all reference to the manual acts, ordered in the first and last Prayer Book, attending the consecration of the holy elements. |
2. transf. See quot.
| 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxiii, Smaller hand-stones, which the sailors call ‘prayer-books’, are used to scrub in among the crevices and narrow places. |
3. attrib. and Comb.
| 1896 Westm. Gaz. 22 Dec. 2/1 May I say that your lordship is a Prayer-book Churchman—by which I mean that you neither belong to the English Church Union nor the Church Association? 1899 Ibid. 4 Mar. 7/3 It would be much to be regretted if the influence of the Prayer-book Party were weakened by individual secessions. |