Hom"i*ly (?), n.;
pl. Homilies (#). [LL. homilia, Gr. &?; communion, assembly, converse, sermon, fr. &?; an assembly, fr. &?; same; cf. &?; together, and &?; crowd, cf. &?; to press: cf. F.
homélie. See Same.]
1. A discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience; a serious discourse. Shak.
2. A serious or tedious exhortation in private on
some moral point, or on the conduct of life.
As I have heard my father
Deal out in his long homilies.
Byron.
Book of Homilies.
A collection of authorized, printed
sermons, to be read by ministers in churches, esp. one issued in the time of Edward VI., and a second, issued in the reign
of Elizabeth; -- both books being certified to contain a "godly and wholesome doctrine."
Hear it pronounced