Holy Writn.
Holy writings collectively; spec. the Bible or Holy Scriptures. In earlier times, sometimes including other writings dealing with sacred subjects.
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Holy Writc900
writeOE
God's bookOE
writOE
bookOE
Biblea1300
holy lettrurec1330
scripturec1330
the (sacred or holy) writings1340
gospel1393
worda1425
escripture1489
Holy Write1508
theologya1513
the written word1533
Book of God1548
oracle1548
hand biblea1680
good book1740
sacred book1782
the sacred volume1850
bibliotheca1879
Kitab1885
c900 tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (1890) ii. xvi. [xx.] 152 Æfter þon þe halige writu sprecað.
c1200 Vices & Virtues 15 We findeð on hali write.
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 77 As hali writ seið hare speche sprad ase cancre.
c1305 St. Kenelm 258 in Early Eng. Poems & Lives Saints (1862) 54 Þe pope nam þis holi writ.
a1375 Lay Folks Mass Bk. App. iv. 90 Wiþ-outen witnesse of holi writ Wisdam weore hit non.
c1400 Mandeville's Trav. (1839) xii. 136 Thei han Gospelles and the Prophecyes and the Byble writen in here Langage, Wherfore thei conne meche of Holy Wrytt.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Othello (1622) iii. iii. 328 Confirmations strong As proofes of holy writ . View more context for this quotation
1700 J. Dryden Chaucer's Cock & Fox in Fables 237 Of Daniel, you may read in Holy Writ.
1714 A. Pope Chaucer's Wife of Bath in R. Steele Poet. Misc. 22 And close the Sermon, as beseem'd his Wit, With some grave Sentence out of Holy Writ.
1805 H. T. Colebrooke in Asiatic Researches (London ed.) (1808) 8 483 Writers on ethics sometimes draw from the Vedas illustrations of moral maxims, and quote from their holy writ passages at full length, in support of ethical precepts.
1817 S. T. Coleridge Tell's Birth-Place in Sibyll. Leaves 264 To Nature and to Holy writ Alone did God the boy commit.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1899; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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