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high priest

noun

  1. a chief priest.
  2. Judaism. (from Aaronic times to about the 1st century a.d.) the priest ranking above all other priests and the only one permitted to enter the holy of holies.
  3. Informal. a person in a high position of power or influence, especially one who is revered as a preeminent authority or interpreter:

    the high priest of the young painters.



high priest

noun

  1. Judaism the priest of highest rank who alone was permitted to enter the holy of holies of the tabernacle and Temple
  2. Mormon Church a priest of the order of Melchizedek priesthood
  3. the head of a group or cult Also (feminine)high priestess


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Derived Forms

  • high priesthood, noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of high priest1

1350–1400; Middle English heiye prest

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Example Sentences

He was then literally slapped around by the high priest, who pulled on his ears in an effort to produce tears.

Legal minds look to the text to read the thoughts of the Framers as a high priest would study entrails at the Forum.

The Neo-Classicists had a cannon they copied and, in Ingres, a high priest.

Glenn was the self-proclaimed “high priest” of “The Cult of Recreationalism.”

July 31 marks the centenary of the birth of the high priest of monetarism, Milton Friedman.

Simon the high priest, the son of Onias, who in his life propped up the house, and in his days fortified the temple.

So the other disciple, who was known unto the high priest, went out and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter.

And Jonathan gathered together his nation, and was made their high priest, and he was laid to his people.

This was the case in Mexico, where the Montezuma was high priest, and derived his power largely from this position.

It was the case with the agricultural communities of the southern United States, whose Mico was at once high priest and autocrat.

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