consecrated, ppl. a.
(ˈkɒnsɪkreɪtɪd)
[f. prec. + -ed.]
1. Dedicated to a sacred purpose; made sacred; hallowed, sanctified.
| 1552 Bk. Com. Prayer, Consecr. Bps. Rubric, Then the Archbishop shall proceed to the communion, with whom the new consecrated Bishop with others shall also communicate. 1662 Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion, If the consecrated bread or wine be all spent. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) IV. 117 An altar-piece representing our Saviour, distributing consecrated wafers to the disciples. |
| absol. 1659 Bramhall Ch. Eng. Defended 75 Such an ordination subjected both the consecrators and the consecrated to deprivation. |
b. spec. Of a church, churchyard, or burial-ground: Set apart with religious forms by a bishop, for public worship, or the burial of the dead, and having such ecclesiastical and legal status as this gives in England and some parts of the Commonwealth.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iv. iii. 25 Vnderneath that consecrated roofe. 1632 High Commission Cases (Camden) 277 Whereas the Parish Church of Hurly is a consecrated place. 1876 Blunt & Phillimore Bk. of Ch. Law v. i. 303 The law..forbids a clergyman to officiate publicly in any building which is not either consecrated or licensed for Divine Service by the bishop. Ibid. 315 The Status of Consecrated land and buildings.—The estate in a consecrated church and church-yard is one of freehold of which the fee-simple is in abeyance. Mod. A walk divides the consecrated from the unconsecrated part of the cemetery. The body was not buried in consecrated ground. |
2. Dedicated, ‘sacred’
to a tutelary divinity.
| 1599 Thynne Animadv. (1865) 1 The monthe of Januarye (consecrated to the dooble faced godd Janus). 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 51 Olives..the fruit was consecrated to Minerva. 1884 Gustafson Found. Death i. (ed. 3) 15 The serpent was consecrated to Bacchus. |
3. fig. Sanctioned by general observance or usage [F.
consacré].
| 1868 M. Pattison Academ. Org. v. 211 These services, to use the consecrated phrase, get on well enough. 1872 Bagehot Physics & Pol. (1876) 162 The only sufficient and effectual agent in so doing was consecrated custom. |
Hence
ˈconsecratedness.
| 1846 in Worcester. 1847 in Craig; and in subseq. Dicts. |