▪ I. kirk, n.
(kɜːk, Sc. kɪrk)
Forms: 3 (Orm.) kirrke, 3–7 kirke, 4–6 kyrke, 4–7 kyrk, (4 kirc, 6 kerke, 6–9 kurk), 4– kirk.
[Northern form of church: cf. OE. circe, and ON. kirkja, Da. kirke, Sw. kyrka.]
1. The Northern English and Scotch form of the word church, in all its senses. a. In Northern English: formerly used as far south as Norfolk; and still extending in dialect use to north-east Lincolnshire: see E.D.D. Frequent in proper names all over its original area.
| c 1200 Ormin 3533 Hallȝhedd inn hiss kirrke. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 92 Clerkes of holy kirke. a 1340 Hampole Psalter Prol., Þis boke..is mast oysed in halykyrke seruys. c 1400 Melayne 29 In kirkes and abbayes that there were. c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 1422 After the trewe kyrkes vsage. c 1550 Cheke Matt. xvi. 18 note, Yis word church..commeth of y⊇ greek κυριακόν..as ye north doth yet moor truli sound it, y⊇ kurk, and we moor corruptli and frenchlike, y⊇ church. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. July 97 To Kerke the narre, from God more farre, Has bene an old⁓sayd sawe. a 1656 Ussher Power Princes ii. (1683) 234 That place which..all men did call a Kirk. 1674–91 Ray N.C. Words 41 Kyrk, Church, κυριακόν. 1785 Hutton Bran New Wark (Westmld.) 14 Be serious and devout, net come to kirk with a moon belief. 1802 in Anderson Cumbld. Ball. 24 Helter skelter frae the kurk. 1828 Craven Dial. s.v., He's as poor as a kirk mouse. 1877 Holderness Gloss., Kirk, a church. Not much used. That at Owthorne on the coast is called the ‘Sister Kirk’. |
b. Used in literary
Sc. till 17th c., and still retained in vernacular use in the general sense of ‘church’.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 71 Quhen he..In-till the kyrk Schyr Ihone haid slayn. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 574 The hie Mes was done, The King with mony cumly out of the Kirk is gane. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 11 We trow the kirk Catholik be Ane Faithfull Christin cumpanie. 1643 Petit. Ass. Kirk Scot. in Clarendon Hist. Reb. vi. §340 The Kirk of England (which We ought to tender as our own Bowels). 1648 in Rec. Kirk of Scot. (1838) I. 507 All the corruptions that have been formerly in the Kirks of God in these Lands [England and Scotland]. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 49 The Scottish kirk the English church do name; The English church the Scots a kirk do call. a 1653 Binning Serm. (1743) 607 Unless their prayers do it, or their keeping the kirk. a 1704 T. Brown Cupid turn'd Tinker Wks. 1730 I. 112 At play-house and kirk Where he slily did lurk. 1786 Burns Twa Dogs 19 At kirk or market, mill or smiddie. 1894 ‘Ian Maclaren’ Bonnie Brier Bush, Lachlan Campbell iii. 145 Away on the right the Parish Kirk peeped out from a clump of trees. |
c. In official use, the name ‘Kirk of Scotland’ gave place to ‘Church of Scotland’ at the date of the Westminster Assembly: see
quots. 1645, 1648. But (d) in subsequent English (as opposed to Scottish) usage, the term ‘kirk’ has often been opposed to ‘church’ to distinguish the Church of Scotland from the Church of England, or from the Episcopal Church in Scotland. So
Free Kirk for the Free Church of Scotland.
| c. 1560 (title) The Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland. 1637–50 Row Hist. Kirk (1842) 3 Instructed..in the exact knowledge of the Estate of this Kirk of Scotland. 1645 in Rec. Kirk of Scot. (1838) I. 431/1 Subscribed in name of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, by the Moderator of the Assembly. [1648 Ibid. I. 506 (title) A Declaration and Exhortation of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to their Brethren of England. 1691 (title) The principal Acts of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland conveened at Edinburgh the 16th day of October, 1690.] |
| d. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. xii. §121 Nor did she [the queen] prefer the glory of the church of England before the sordidness of the kirk of Scotland. 1708 Swift Sacram. Test Wks. 1755 II. i. 135 To swear..as they do now in Scotland, to be true to the kirk. 1791 Hampson Mem. Wesley II. 19 A member of the kirk. 1831 Macaulay Ess., Hampden (1887) 219 This government..called a general assembly of the Kirk. 1850 Whipple Ess. & Rev. (ed. 3) I. 213 Examples which tell against kirk as well as against church. 1854 Kingsley Let. 22 Feb. in Life xii. (1879) I. 321 Erskine and others think [the lectures] will do much good, but will infuriate the Free Kirk. |
2. Sometimes affected to render
Du. kerk,
LG. kerke, or
Ger. kirche.
| 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. 25 Here [Delft] are two large Churches, the one called the old, the other the new Kirk. 1851 Longfellow Gold Leg. ii. Village Ch. 69, I may to yon kirk go, To read upon yon sweet book. |
3. Phr. (
Sc. colloq.)
to make a kirk and a mill of: to put to any use one pleases, to do what one will with. But Kelly gives what may have been the earlier meaning.
| 1721 Kelly Sc. Prov. 252 Make a Kirk and a Mill of it, that is, make your best of it: It does not answer to the English, ‘Make a Hog or a Dog of it’: For that means, bring it either to one use, or another. 1822 Galt Entail I. xviii. 147 The property is my own conquesting..and surely I may make a kirk and a mill o't an I like. 1887 Mrs. Alexander Mona's Choice II. vii. 173, I doubt but the man I let the land to is just making a kirk and a mill of it. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. (see also, in many cases, corresponding combinations of
church): as
kirk act,
kirk bell,
kirk door,
kirk-goer,
kirk government,
kirk preacher,
kirk rent,
kirk steeple,
kirk stile,
kirk vassal,
kirk writer;
kirk-greedy,
kirk-like adjs.;
kirk-assembly, Assembly of the Church of Scotland;
kirk-burial, burial within a church;
kirk-fast, a fast ordained by the Church;
† kirk-feuar Sc. = church-feuar (
church n. 18);
kirk-gate, the high-way or street leading to a church;
kirk-keeper Sc., a constant attendant at the kirk;
† kirk-lair Sc., ‘a lair or burial place within a church, the right of burial within a church’ (
Jam. Suppl.);
† kirk-loom, church machine or utensil;
kirk-shire (see
quot.);
kirk-skail,
-skailing Sc., the dispersion of the congregation after divine service;
kirk-work Sc. = churchwork a.;
kirk-wynd, the lane leading to a church. Also
kirk-ale, -garth, -yard, etc.
| 1606 W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall xix, The *Kirk acts against *Kirk-buriall. |
| 1752 Carte Hist. Eng. III. 425 Going..to the *Kirk-assembly at Edenburgh. |
| 1830 Galt Lawrie T. vi. ii. (1849) 257 To hear the far-off *kirk-bell ringing. |
| 1814 Scott Wav. xxx, He would drive a nail for no man on the Sabbath or *kirk-fast. |
| 1820 ― Monast. xvii, The son of a *kirk feuar is not the stuff that lords and knights are made of. |
| 1643 Declar. Commons (Reb. Ireland) 56 Desires for establishing Unity of Religion, and Uniformity of *Kirk-government. |
| 1882 J. Walker Jaunt to Auld Rcekie, etc. 42 He neir was godly nor *kirk-greedy. |
| 1815 Scott Guy M. xi, A constant *kirk-keeper she is. |
| 1606 W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall xix, Secluding all from the *Kirk-laire. |
| c 1450 Holland Howlat 82 The plesant Pacok... Constant and *kirklyk vnder his cler cape, Myterit, as the maner is. |
| 1819 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 201 The mickle pulpit;..was the Cardinal's ain *kirk-loom, He brocht it in a ship frae Rome. |
| 1844 Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) I. iv. 144 note, These districts allotted to priests were called priestshires, shrift⁓shires, or *kirkshires. |
| 1843 A. Bethune Sc. Fireside Stor. 283 Hame again At *kirk-skail time she came. |
| 1819 Lockhart Peter's Lett. lxxiii. III. 265 When the service is over..(for which moment the Scotch have, in their language, an appropriate and picturesque term, the *kirk-skailing). |
| 1826 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 II. 312 The cock on a *kirk-steeple. |
| 1552 Lyndesay Monarche 4729 Thay hauld the Corps at the *kirk style. |
| 1820 Scott Monast. iii, To hear ye even the Lady of Avenel to seeking quarters wi' a *kirk-vassal's widow! |
| 1430 in 14th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. iii. 21 [A penalty of {pstlg}20 Scots to be paid to the] *kirkwerk [of Glasgow]. 1467 [see church work]. |
| 1680 G. Hickes Spirit of Popery Pref. i, Citing out of the *Kirk-Writers their Papal,..Schismatical and Rebellious Principles. |
| 1888 Barrie When a Man's single i, A kitchen in the *kirk-wynd of Thrums. |
▪ II. kirk, v. Now
Sc. [f. kirk n.] 1. trans. = church v. 1.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. v. xii. 4904 In honoure off that madyn clere That wes kyrkkyd as that day. c 1470 [see church v. 1 b]. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xliii, I'm to be married the morn, and kirkit on Sunday. 1825 Jamieson, A bride is said to be kirkit, the first time she goes to church after she has been married; on which occasion she is usually attended by some of the marriage-company... A family is also said to be kirkit, the first time they go to church after there has been a funeral in it. 1891 Barrie Little Minister xliv, All he had to do was to re-marry him, and kirk him. |
† 2. To lay
up or deposit in a church. (
Cf. church v. 2.)
Obs.| 1606 W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall xi, The wel deseruing by the purse,..was in vse to be Kirked vp in burial. |
3. To send or drive (the ball) to the church, as a goal.
| 1834 T. Brown in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club I. No. 2. 46 The person who succeeded in kirking or in milling—such are the phrases—the..golden ball. |
Hence
ˈkirking vbl. n. (also attrib.).
| c 1470 Henry Wallace xi. 352 It was bot till a kyrkyn fest. 1818 Edinb. Mag. Nov. 414 On Sunday comes the kirking. The bride and bridegroom, attended by their office-bearers,..walk to the kirk. Mod. Sc. saying, ‘A bride is a bride fra' her crying to her kirking’ (i.e. from the proclamation of banns to her first attendance at church). |