Definition of "pope"

Þa wæs in þa tid Uitalius papa þæs apostolican seðles aldorbiscop.

ante 950, translating Bede's Ecclesiastical History (Tanner), iv. i. 252

The Pope is not going to issue a bull condemning the Spanish Church's support of France and destroy the Church's right to exist in Spain.

1959 August 19, Flannery O'Connor, letter in Habit of Being (1980), 347

I really did want to interview the pope. Any pope. I'm not particular.

2007 May 5, Ted Koppel (guest), Wait, Wait... Don’t tell me!, National Public Radio

All notable Bishops were then called popes.

1563, 2nd Tome Homelyes, sig. Hh.i

All Bishops in that time had the Stile of Pope given them, as now we call every one of them, My Lord.

1703, U. Chevreau, Hist. World, III. v. 379

Byfleet-river, wherein are very large pikes, jack, and tench ; perch, of eighteen inches long ; good carp, large flounders, bream, roach, dace, gudgeons, popes, large chub, and eels.

1792, William Augustus Osbaldiston, The British Sportsman, Or, Nobleman, Gentleman and Farmer's Dictionary of Recreation and Amusement, page 176

It resembles the perch (unfortunately for itself) in having a very long and prickly fin on its back, advantage of which is taken by the boys about Windsor, who are very fond of 'plugging a pope.' This operation consists in fixing a bung in the sharp spines on the poor pope's back fin, and then throwing him into the water.

1862, Francis T. Buckland, Curiosities of Natural History, page 230

Popes are caught whilst gudgeon-fishing with the red worm, but they are sometimes a great nuisance to the perch-fisher, as they take the minnow.

1865 January 14, Astley H. Baldwin, “Small Fry”, in Once a Week, page 105

Alca genus; 6 species, including the razorbill, the penguin, the pope, and others.

1759, “Linnæus's Systema Naturæ”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, page 456

The Pope: This is a very singular bird; it is about the size of our widgeon, or somewhat larger, but is not quite so large as the duck: the head is large and rounded; the eyes are small, and stand forward on the head, and lower down than in the generality of birds [...]

1773, John Hill, “Alca”, in A General Natural History, volume 3, page 442

"About a hundred yards further North" says Troutbeck, "is a 'subterraneous' cavern called the Pope's Hole, about fifty fathoms under the ground, into which the sea flows, so called from a sort of bird which roosts in it by night, about ninety feet high above the level of the water."!! [...] It derives its name from its being a place of shelter to some puffins, vulgo "popes".

1822, George Woodley, A view of the present state of the Scilly Islands, pages 264–5

The Norsemen catch great numbers of these popes, parrots, or lunder, as they are variously named, and train dogs to go into the holes where the puffin has its nest, lying in it with feet in the air.

1864, Charles Issac Elton, Norway: The Road and the Fell, page 94

I was informed by a fisherman that there were now hundreds of gannets in the channel off Plymouth, and that he had also met with some puffins (which he called "popes")

1874, J. Van Voorst, Zoologist: A Monthly Journal of Natural History, page 3904

The Pope is of a bright blue round the head; on the throat it is of a fine red, and on the back of a gold green colour, it sings very finely and is the size of a canary bird.

1771, M. Bossu, Travels Through that Part of North America Formerly Called Louisiana, volume 1, page 371

The birds [of Louisiana] are the partridge, cardinal and pope, and a species of mocking bird, called the nightingale.

1806, Berquin-Duvallon, Travels in Louisiana and the Floridas, in the Year, 1802: Giving a Correct Picture of Those Countries, page 122

[...] some others, such as the crow, the heron, and the wild goose, which are found in Europe, I also observed ; but the most beautiful are the pope bird, whose head seems bound with the most bright azure blue, and the cardinal, being entirely of dazzling scarlet [...]

1821, Édouard de Montulé, A Voyage to North America, and the West Indies in 1817, page 54

From the sketch of the bird which you have sent us, there is no doubt about its being the Pope Grosbeak, which is a species of the Cardinal, but not the crested one.

1864 August 6, The Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener, and Country Gentleman, page 100

The Pope is a native of Brazil, and the female (it is altogether incongrouous to think of a lady pontiff) exactly resembles her mate.

1883, William Thomas Greene, The amateur's aviary of foreign birds: or, How to keep and breed foreign birds, page 96

SIR,—I should be glad to learn how to treat Pope birds (Crestless Cardinals) when nesting.

1895, A. A. Thom, “Dominican cardinals”, in The Avicultural Magazine, page 128

Besides the Bicheno's Finches in this Class, the judge disqualified, in other Classes, a pair of Magpie Mannikins and a pair of Popes. These entries were presumably all disqualified on the ground that they were not true pairs: they are all birds in which the outward differences between the sexes (if there be any outward difference at all) are of an extremely slight and uncertain nature.

1898, The Avicultural Magazine, volume 4, page 87

The wisest plan is always to keep the Pope Cardinal in an aviary, and to have only one pair to each aviary.

1956, Foreign birds for cage and aviary, volume 4, page 20

Paul popith Jolyly, that woll desire the worlde to pray for the kinges apeyrement.

1537, T. Cromwell in R. B. Merriman, Life & Lett. Cromwell (1902), II. 89

Vrban the eight, that now Popeth it.

1624, R. Montagu, Gagg for New Gospell?, xiii. 95

He would pope it in his own way, God guiding him.

1966 February, Duckett's Reg., 14/2

I saw where the Pope poped and where the pigeons flocked. Pretty interesting if you're Catholic and like pigeons.

1989 September 24, Los Angeles Times, iii. 22/1

I'm not going to ‘Pope’ until after the war (if I'm alive).

c. 1916, in Evelyn Waugh's Life R. Knox (1959), ii. i. 142

A prominent Anglican priest had, to use the term generally employed on these occasions, ‘Poped’—that is, left the Church of England in order to become a Roman Catholic.

1990 October 7, Sunday Telegraph, 26/5

When made with Burgundy or Bordeaux, the mixture was called Bishop; when with old Rhenish, its name was Cardinal; and when with Tokay, it was dignified with the title of Pope.

1855, C. W. Johnson, Farmer's & Planter's Encycl. Rural Affairs, published 1157, section 1

‘Pope’, i.e. mulled burgundy, is Antichristian, from no mere Protestant point of view.

1920, G. Saintsbury, Notes on Cellar-bk., xi. 162

Pope, a spiced drink made from tokay..., ginger, honey and roasted orange.

1965, O. A. Mendelsohn, Dict. Drink, section 264

Many of these hot drinks have clerical names—Bishop being a type of mulled port, Cardinal using claret, and Pope Champagne.

1976 January 15, Times (London), 12/8

The other Ecclesiastical Orders are distinguish'd into Proto-popes, Popes, (or Priests) and Deacons.

1662, A. Olearius, translated by J. Davies, Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors, section 139

Every priest is called pope, which implies father.

1756, Compend. Authentic & Entertaining Voy., V. 202

In the non-Roman rites diocesan priests are often referred to as popes.

1996 September 20, Daily Telegraph, 25/5

The Whipperwill has so named itself by its nocturnal songs. It is also called the pope, by reason of its darting with great swiftness, from the clouds almost to the ground, and bawling out Pope!

1781, S. Peters, Gen. Hist. Connecticut, section 257

Common Nighthawk... Pope (Conn[ecticut]. From the sound made by its wings while dropping through the air).

1956, Massachusetts Audubon Soc. Bull., 40 81