Definition of "glebe"

glebe

/ɡliːb/

noun
plural glebes
1. Turf; soil; ground; sod.
  Quotations
  Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, / Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke
  1768, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
2. (historical) In medieval Europe, an area of land, belonging to a parish, whose revenues contributed towards the parish expenses.
3. (poetic) A field or meadow.
  Quotations
  Admiring glebes their amber ears unfold, / And Labour sleep amid the waving gold.
  1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page 151
4. (mining) A piece of earth containing ore.