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comparative more pastoral, superlative most pastoral
Of or pertaining to shepherds or herders of other livestock. quotations examples
Like the Mesolithic age of 10,000-8000 B.C., the period 6000-4000 B.C. seems to be one of the fall of fortresses and the rise of pastoral nomadism.
1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 160
Relating to rural life and scenes, in particular of poetry. quotations examples
[…] these pastoral farms, / Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke / Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!
1798, Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Lines Above Tintern Abbey, lines 16–18
There was a tone, too, of pastoral poetry shed over the new scenes to which they were just introduced, that had a greater effect from the contrast to those, artificial and crowded, which they had just left.
1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), pages 219–220
He wanders west as far as Memphis, a solitary migrant upon that flat and pastoral landscape.
1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian […]
Relating to the care of souls, to the pastor of a church or to any local religious leader charged with the service of individual parishioners, i.e. a priest or rabbi. examples
plural pastorals
A poem describing the life and manners of shepherds; a poem in which the speakers assume the character of shepherds; an idyll; a bucolic. quotations examples
Ethel was silent from surprise: she had prepared herself for anger—even sorrow; but ridicule left her without an answer. What could she say to a hearer, who only smiled, and to whom emotion was only a scene in a pastoral?
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XV, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 115
(music) A cantata relating to rural life; a composition for instruments characterized by simplicity and sweetness; a lyrical composition the subject of which is taken from rural life. examples
(religion, Christianity) A letter of a pastor to his charge; specifically, a letter addressed by a bishop to his diocese. examples
(religion, Christianity) A letter of the House of Bishops, to be read in each parish. examples