Holy Writ
[See holy a. and writ.]
Holy writings collectively; spec. the Bible or Holy Scriptures. In earlier times, sometimes including other writings dealing with sacred subjects.
| c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. ii. xvi. [xx.] (1890) 152 æfter þon þe haliᵹe writu sprecað. c 1200 Vices & Virtues 15 We findeð on hali write. a 1225 Ancr. R. 98 Ase holi writ seið, ‘hore speche spret ase cauncre’. c 1305 St. Kenelm 258 in E.E.P. (1862) 54 Þe pope nam þis holi writ. a 1375 Lay Folks Mass Bk. App. iv. 90 Wiþ-outen witnesse of holi writ Wisdam weore hit non. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xii. 136 Thei han Gospelles and the Prophecyes and the Byble writen in here Langage, Wherfore thei conne meche of Holy Wrytt. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 324 Confirmations strong, As proofes of holy Writ. 1700 Dryden Cock & Fox 380 Of Daniel you may read in holy writ. 1714 Pope Wife of Bath 346 And close the sermon, as beseem'd his wit, With some grave sentence out of holy writ. 1805 Colebrooke in Asiat. Res. (1808) VIII. 483 Writers on ethics sometimes draw from the Vedas illustrations of moral maxims, and quote from their holy writ passages at full length, in support of ethical precepts. 1817 Coleridge Sibyl. Leaves (1862) 245 To Nature and to Holy Writ Alone did God the boy commit. |