Unpriest

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who is not a priest. rare
Verb
  1. 1
    To deprive of priesthood transitive

    "1644 July, John Milton, The Judgment of Martin Bucer touching Divorce, Book II, Chapter XXIV, tr. of Martin Bucer, De Regno Christi. The same thought Leo, bishop of Rome, Ep. 85, to the African bishops of Mauritania Caesariensis, wherein complaining of a certain priest, who divorcing his wife, or being divorced by her, as other copies have it, had married another, neither dissolves the matrimony, nor excommunicates him, only unpriests him."

Example

More examples

"1644 July, John Milton, The Judgment of Martin Bucer touching Divorce, Book II, Chapter XXIV, tr. of Martin Bucer, De Regno Christi. The same thought Leo, bishop of Rome, Ep. 85, to the African bishops of Mauritania Caesariensis, wherein complaining of a certain priest, who divorcing his wife, or being divorced by her, as other copies have it, had married another, neither dissolves the matrimony, nor excommunicates him, only unpriests him."

Etymology

From un- + priest.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.