ritualadj.n.
/ˈrɪtʃʊəl/, /ˈrɪtʃ(ᵿ)l/, /ˈrɪtjʊəl/, /ˈrɪtjᵿl/, U.S. /ˈrɪtʃ(əw)əl/ A. adj.
1.
a. Of or relating to the performance of rites.Some quots. may represent the noun used attributively.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > observance, ritual > [adjective]
solemna1340
ceremonial138.
solemnyc1420
solemned1423
solenc1460
solemnel?1473
solemnly1482
ceremonious1555
ritual1570
rituous1604
ceremonicala1627
liturgical1641
liturgic1656
Levitical1670
hierurgical1725
sacral1882
1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) I. 83/1 Contayning no maner of doctrine..but onely certayn ritual decrees to no purpose.
1645 J. Brinsley Church-remedie 53 Pauls traditions..were of two sorts, dogmatical and rituall... Rituall, concerning rites and orders, eivill or religious.
1653 H. More Second Lash of Alazonomastix (1713) 40 The Ritual laws and Religious stories of the Heathens.
1694 Bp. G. Burnet Four Disc. iv. 89 These Rules in Ritual Matters are impositions on our Christian Liberty.
1730 D. Waterland Suppl. Treat. Christian Sacraments ii. 21 There are some Instances in Scripture of ritual Laws giving way to Necessity.
a1785 W. Leechman Serm. (1789) II. xxi. 216 The superstitious pharisees..were very scrupulous about the smallest ritual matters.
1821 W. Wordsworth Eccl. Sonn. iii. xix Through a zodiac, moves the ritual year Of England's Church.
1885 H. O. Wakeman Hist. Relig. Eng. xi. 120 An association was formed..to test the legality of these ritual alterations.
1904 W. Canton Story Bible Soc. ii. 11 Christian denominations whom doctrinal and ritual differences had kept for ages asunder.
1958 J. Middleton & D. Tait Tribes without Rulers 24 Nuer and Dinka have little regard for the ritual aspect of the ancestors.
2004 R. Weinstein Marriage Rituals Ital. Style iii. 173 The spouses had to be married according to the ritual directives imposed by the Byzantine Church.
b. Of a substance, object, etc.: used in or connected with rites.
ΚΠ
1740 H. Travers tr. Homer Iliad iii. in Misc. Poems & Transl. xxxii. 319 Near to the kings the sacred heralds drew, And over their hands the ritual water threw.
1821 H. C. Knight Poems I. 21 If consecrated ritual bread, With real presence ever fed.
1892 Bibliotheca Sacra Apr. 197 The use of special sacrificial or ritual items, e.g. incense, leaven, booths, etc.
1934 Burlington Mag. Mar. 139/1 Other ritual bronzes said to have been found with the kuang.
1975 P. Warren Aegean Civilization ii. 43 The individual who made the so-called Harvester Vase..created a masterpiece. Here are 27 figures marching around a ritual vase a few inches high.
2003 L. F. Winner Mudhouse Sabbath i. 8 Havdalah involves a number of ritual objects—wine for tasting, and a braided candle for lighting.
2. Of an action or practice: of the nature of or constituting a rite.
ΚΠ
?1591 H. Barrow Brief Discouerie False Church 77 These solemnities & feastes..were meerly ceremonial & ritual.
a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1955) II. 258 Sacramental and ritual, and ceremonial things, which are..the subsidies of religion.
1652 P. Sterry England's Deliverance 13 These rituall observations, these consecrated formes.
1725 E. Fenton in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey I. iv. 588 Due ritual honours to the Gods I pay.
1780 S. Parr Two Serm. ii. 38 Revelation..will always be found to set morality far above ritual observances.
1867 D. Duncan Disc. viii. 155 Holiness does not consist in bodily austerities or in ritual observances.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 65/2 The ablution is the ritual washing of the chalice and of the priest's fingers after the celebration of Holy Communion.
1984 J. Farrar & S. Farrar Witches' Way xviii. 193 Ritual nudity is a general practice in Gardnerian and Alexandrian witchcraft.
2002 R. Murphy Kick (2003) 345 One night we attended a ritual performance by devil dancers trying to heal a very sick man.
3. Of, relating to, or constituting a psychological ritual (sense B. 2b). Later more generally: habitual, customary.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > customary or habitual mode of behaviour > [adjective] > routine > constituting a ritual
ritual1923
1923 J. S. Huxley in Jrnl. Linn. Soc.: Zool. 35 278 The ‘ritual’ use of non-sexual actions during courtship.
a1949 H. S. Sullivan Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry (1953) xviii. 307 All these ritual avoidances and preoccupations give one a feeling that one is making some sense in an important area of living.
1972 W. Labov Lang. in Inner City viii. 305 Those who have some knowledge of urban ghetto culture will recognize Rel's remark Your mother's a duck as a ritual insult.
1977 B. Pym Quartet in Autumn i. 5 He offered her the bag of jelly babies, but this was only a ritual gesture and he knew that she would refuse.
2000 J. Goodwin Danny Boy i. 24 He's sat nursing the ritual bottle of Becks.
B. n.
1.
a. Frequently with capital initial. A book containing details of the form or order of religious or ceremonial rites. Now chiefly historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > artefacts > book (general) > service book (general) > [noun] > for ceremonies
ceremoniary1567
ritual1604
ceremonial1612
1604 R. Parsons Rev. Ten Publike Disput. ii. 134 The ancient liturgies or ritualls also of the Apostles and their schollers.
1656 A. Cowley Pindarique Odes 58 in Poems The Sorcerers..smil'd at th' unaccustomed Spell Which no Egyptian Rituals tell.
1674 A. Cremer tr. J. Scheffer Hist. Lapland viii. 27 He likewise was the first that published the Ritual in the Laplandish tongue.
1705 J. Addison Remarks Italy 328 An Heathen Ritual could not instruct a Man better..in the particular Ceremonies..that attended the different kinds of Sacrifices.
1784 Acct. Gentleman's Soc. at Spalding 15 Doubtless there were very many of these missals, portals, tropars, rituals, and other such books.
1845 J. Lingard Hist. & Antiq. Anglo-Saxon Church (ed. 3) I. App. m. 420 In pp. 185, 187 of the ritual, occurs another collection of similar entries.
1870 J. H. Burton Hist. Scotl. to 1688 VI. lxix. 450 Thus the use of it as a ritual was virtually ‘suspended’.
1912 Catholic Encycl. XIII. 89/2 Many countries have local customs..not found in the Roman book, still printed in various diocesan Rituals.
1982 N. Mitchell Cult & Controv. v. 231 The Ritual published by order of Pope Paul V in 1614.
2007 B. Heal Cult of Virgin Mary in Early Mod. Germany iv. 152 The Ritual printed in Dillingen in 1580 also omitted the feast day of Mary's mother, Anne.
b. The prescribed form or order of religious or ceremonial rites.figurative in quot. 1856.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > observance, ritual > [noun]
usec1400
divine1480
actiona1572
liturgy1593
ritual1620
opus Dei1860
li1912
1620 N. Brent tr. P. Sarpi Hist. Councel of Trent vi. 548 Anciently euery Church had her particular Ritual of the Maβe, brought in by vse, and vpon occasion, rather then by deliberation and decree.
1649 Bp. J. Taylor Apol. Litvrgie (ed. 2) §89 Then the Bishop prayes ritè, according to the rituall or constitution.
1734 tr. C. Rollin Anc. Hist. I. 170 According to the Greek ritual, (if I may use that expression).
1772 J. Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) II. 121 There was a..dignity in the Jewish ritual.
1838 W. H. Prescott Hist. Reign Ferdinand & Isabella I. i. vi. 218 The Romish ritual was not admitted into its churches till long after it had been adopted in the rest of Europe.
1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits xi. 188 Politeness is the ritual of society, as prayers are of the church.
1876 C. M. Davies Unorthodox London (rev. ed.) 93 The ritual resembles that of the Church of England.
1915 C. P. Gilman in Forerunner Oct. 267/2 They had no ritual, no little set of performances called ‘divine service’.
1992 R. L. Stirrat Power & Religiosity in Post-colonial Setting ix. 178 He would return seething with anger at..change in the ritual of the mass.
2.
a. A ritual act or ceremonial observance. Also in later use: an action or series of actions regularly or habitually repeated. mating ritual: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > customary or habitual mode of behaviour > [noun] > a habit or practice > of a formal kind
observancea1250
rite?a1475
office1535
ritual1611
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > customs, values, or beliefs of a society or group > [noun] > custom of a society or group > formal
observancea1250
observationa1382
rite?a1475
ritual1611
society > faith > worship > observance, ritual > [noun] > instance or form of > plural or collective
orgiac1487
common prayer1493
sacre1542
obsequy?1550
orgy1597
ritual1611
holies1613
Dagonals1614
sacred1624
agenda1637
ephemeris1650
officials1659
religion1667
the world > action or operation > behaviour > customary or habitual mode of behaviour > [noun] > a habit or practice > of a formal kind > in trivial matters
ritual1911
1611 A. Willet Hexapla: Rom. ii. xiii. 605 The subiects vse to blesse their Prince..and this is but benedictio ritualis, a kind of rituall, no reall blessing.
1656 R. Vines Treat. Inst. Lords-Supper i. 21 There were in the first Passover..certain rituals or occasionals.
1662 H. Hibbert Exercitationes Theologicæ 103 in Syntagma Theologicum God..will have order both in substantials and circumstantials, in reals and in rituals.
1715 E. Young Poem on Last Day (ed. 3) iii. 38 In solemn Form the Rituals are prepar'd.
1737 Gentleman's Mag. Jan. 40/1 Sects, or Heresies, may be formed about Rituals..as well as about Points of Doctrine.
1817 W. Scott Rob Roy I. vi. 134 Your religion and your temperance are so much offended by Roman rituals.
1875 I. Burton Inner Life Syria, Palestine, & Holy Land I. viii. 113 Fanatical chiefs of sects claim precedence for their own particular rituals.
1911 M. Beerbohm Zuleika Dobson iii. 29 He cared for his wardrobe and his toilet-table..merely as..a ritual in which to express and realise, his own idolatry.
1957 P. Carrington Early Christian Church II. x. 167 The continuance of their rituals..was now the main issue in the battle between the church and empire.
1975 L. Lee I can't stay Long (1977) 203 The ritual of bargaining was long and elaborate.
2001 Audubon May 104/3 (advt.) This is a great area to observe the nesting rituals of giant sea turtles.
b. Psychology. A compulsive act or routine, the non-performance of which results in tension and anxiety.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > compulsion neurosis > compulsion > compulsive series of actions
ritual1920
1920 G. S. Hall tr. S. Freud Gen. Introd. Psychoanal. xvii. 227 This girl has also developed a sleep ritual... The pathological ritual is rigid.
1956 H. S. Lippman Treatm. Child in Emotional Conflict ix. 113 The diagnosis of obsessional neurosis in a child depends primarily on the presence of ceremonials or rituals which he cannot control.
1972 A. Storr Dynamics of Creation viii. 98 The ritual had started originally as an attempt to purge himself of the guilt surrounding masturbation.
1998 R. Gordon Ailments through Ages 209 Hand-washing rituals are indicative of an obsessional personality.
3. The performance of ritual acts. Also in later use: repeated actions or patterns of behaviour having significance within a particular social group.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > observance, ritual > [noun] > performance of
with or in (great, etc.) solemnityc1290
solemnity1390
solemnization1447
observancea1450
solennizationc1450
solemnation1470
celebration1483
superstition1513
ministration1535
celebrating1547
solemnizing1565
ministering1566
solemnize1590
solemniation1631
officiating1640
exercise1656
exercitation1660
officiation1804
altar service1831
ritual1865
1865 Theol. Rev. May 295 Ritual is in itself no more than an expression of the fact that man should give his best to God.
1875 E. B. Pusey Let. 2 Jan. in H. P. Liddon et al. Life E. B. Pusey (1897) IV. vii. 279 He had not heard of Ritual being excepted against by the congregation when there was not fussiness or self-consciousness or some like fault.
1924 W. B. Selbie Psychol. Relig. 102 The social element in these early forms of ritual..points to a tribal consciousness.
1971 L. Neal in A. Gayle Black Aesthetic 285 Like all good ritual, its purpose is to make the audience stronger, more sensitive to the historical realities that have shaped our lives and the lives of our ancestors.
1988 D. I. Kertzer Ritual, Politics, & Power (1989) iv. 72 Ritual provides a mechanism for people to express their allegiance to an organization or to a movement.
2006 R. Scruton Gentle Regrets v. 67 His love of ritual was the other side of his intense devotion to the past.
Compounds
C1. Compounds of the adjective.
ritual abuse n. (a) abusive language of a formulaic or repetitive type; (b) harm inflicted in a ritualized or repetitive manner; (in later use) spec. (also satanic ritual abuse) = satanic abuse n. at satanic adj. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1935 Amer. Anthropologist 37 479 I had two men..with me in a boatcrew on the Gulf of Carpentaria, and they maintained an almost incessant exchange of ritual abuse, even when traveling with the launch at sea.
1980 Washington Post (Nexis) 29 Apr. a10 Scenes of the ritual abuse of the bodies by the Iranians got a different order of consideration than did the merely macabre plane crash scenes.
1987 ABA Jrnl. (Nexis) 1 May Many more people believe in UFOs than in ritual abuse. When you talk about black robes and human sacrifices, the case goes out the window.
1991 Lang. in Society 20 398 Local rules for ritual abuse in English..in which references to your opponent's parents and family were explicitly proscribed.
1994 Denver Post 9 Jan. e6/1 [He] had the misfortune to be misidentified as a practitioner of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA).
ritual bath n. a bath which forms part of a purificatory ritual; spec. = mikvah n.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > cleanness (ceremonial) > purification > [noun] > bath in which purification is gained
ritual bath1870
mikvah1904
1870 Zion's Herald 10 Feb. 70/2 There is no Migveh (an establishment for taking the ritual bath).
1876 E. A. Bowring tr. V. Alfieri Alcestis II v. i, in Trag. Vittorio Alfieri II. 572 She from the Deities obtain'd the favor, Before she to the ritual bath was taken.
1891 Yearbk. Central Conf. Amer. Rabbis 1890–91 67 Rabbi Eliah Misrachi's idea is that while the mother should take a ritual bath in order to become a Jewess, her boy, who was born at that time, is, according to the law of Moses..not necessitated to be circumcised nor take the ritual bath.
1896 I. Abrahams Jewish Life Middle Ages iv. 73 There were two kinds of communal baths—the ritual bath or mikveh, and the ordinary public bath.
1955 Times 9 May 13/5 There is an elaborate water system, by which the storm water from the neighbouring wadi was..distributed to ritual baths.
1999 N.Y. Times 7 Jan. a3/3 ‘Snip and dunk’ conversions that ask little more than circumcision from the men and immersion in a ritual bath from the women.
ritual dance n. (a type of) dance performed as part of a ritual.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > observance, ritual > kinds of rite > dance > [noun]
canticoy1670
snake dance1772
ritual dance1805
cyclic chorus1846
sun dance1849
Ghost Dance1876
kagura1884
kachina dance1888
Ghost Dancing1890
tripudium1909
ring-shout1926
trance dance1935
Shango1941
1805 R. Southey Madoc ii. vi. 240 Whirling him In ritual dance, till breath and sense were gone.
1977 Hist. Relig. 17 101 To their specific obligations belong the offering of prayers;..songs or hymns, sometimes accompanied by ritual dance.
2001 R. G. Castro Chicano Folklore 153 The Danza de los Matachines is probably the only ritual dance that is danced by both Hispanic and Native American communities in New Mexico.
ritual killing n. the action of killing in a ritual way, typically as an offering to God or a god; an instance of this.
ΚΠ
1904 Med. Age 25 Feb. 129 The ritual killing of animals is justified not only as a humane procedure, but also from the standpoint of sanitisation.
1972 J. McClure Caterpillar Cop ii. 24 Back marked by long cuts... Those wounds suggest a ritual killing.
2004 R. Lewis Headhunter 91 Newspaper talk about witch doctors and ritual killings, black magic, all that sort of nonsense.
ritual magic n. magic performed as part of, or in the manner of, a ritual.
ΚΠ
1864 W. R. Alger Crit. Hist. Doctr. Future Life iv. ii. 407 Christianity was practically reduced to..a system of ritual magic in the hands of a priesthood who wielded an authority of supernatural terrors over a credulous and shuddering laity.
1937 M. Covarrubias Island of Bali viii. 216 The ritual-magic dances characteristic of primitive peoples.
2004 Times Lit. Suppl. 6 Aug. 22/2 The Theosophical Society..had no truck with the ritual magic of the Order of the Golden Dawn, but it too denied any entanglement with the marvellous.
ritual meal n. a meal consumed as part of, or in the manner of, a ritual.
ΚΠ
1866 W. W. Lloyd Philos., Theol., & Poetry in Age & Art of Rafael ii. 87 Jewish and Heathen precedents for connecting religious mysticism and sacerdotalism with a ritual meal were so rife.
1935 Africa 8 448 They summoned the headman, who was bidden to gather his people together and to kill and cook a chicken for the ritual meal of which all were to partake.
2007 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 30 July ii. 12/3 St. Joseph's Tables are ritual meals traditional in southern Italy, where St. Joseph is venerated for having saved Sicily from a famine in the late Middle Ages.
ritual murder n. the action of committing murder in a ritual way; an instance of this; also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > killing for specific reason > [noun] > ritual killing
human sacrifice1569
ritual murder1883
1883 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Sentinel 8/2 On the 23rd of May Onody related the supposed ritual murder in the Hungarian Parliament.
1950 M. Hay Foot of Pride v. 119 In Germany, the ritual-murder legend was the chief..excuse for a series of riots all over the country which threatened the Jews with complete extermination.
1962 L. Deighton Ipcress File i. 9 The man..was now using knife and fork to commit ritual murder on a cream pastry.
2005 S. Pile Real Cities ii. 61 The case of ‘Adam’, an as yet unidentified boy who was the victim of a ritual murder.
ritual suicide n. the action or an act of taking one's own life in a ritualistic way, esp. in accordance with a religious belief or cultural tradition.Now frequently with reference to Japanese seppuku or hara-kiri (see seppuku n., hara-kiri n.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > suicide > [noun] > types of
sati1806
satiism1828
hara-kiri1856
junshi1871
seppuku1871
ritual suicide1903
murder-suicide1904
autocide1923
mass suicide1937
doctor-assisted suicide1975
self-deliverance1975
self-deliveration1975
assisted suicide1976
suicide by cop1986
bullycide2001
1903 Folk-lore 14 272 The Greeks had no Juggernaut; but examples of self-immolation and ritual suicide are not wanting.
1963 Washington Post 18 Oct. c24/1 The government clash with Buddhists in the wake of..a series of ritual suicides by fire.
2012 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 20 July c6/5 The samurai..arrives at the estate of a feudal lord requesting permission to commit ritual suicide in the courtyard.
C2. Compounds of the noun.
a. Combining with adjectives and past participles to form adjectives, as ritual-bound, ritual-centred, ritual-rich, etc.
ΚΠ
1849 R. Vaughan Age & Christianity vi. 283 This system became as priestly and as ritual-bound as Judaism had ever been.
1860 F. D. Huntingdon Christian Believing & Living ii. 19 Full of fresh, prophetic meaning to his ritual-laden spirit.
1930 D. H. Lawrence A Propos Lady Chatterley's Lover 36 The strange priest-controlled, ritual-fulfilled condition of the earlier Egyptians.
1974 R. M. Berndt Austral. Aboriginal Relig. i. 12 The ritual-centred life of man.
1992 G. Adair Post-modernist always rings Twice 63 The ritual-based structures of our own society.
2002 V. A. Cole in K. Eisenbichler Premodern Teenager v. 96 The ritual-rich culture of the Middle Ages.
b.
ritual book n. [compare Middle French liure ritual (see main etymology; French livre rituel).] a book containing details of the form or order of religious or ceremonial rites.
ΚΠ
1604 R. Cudworth in M. W. Perkins Comm. Epist. to Galatians Ep. Ded. sig. ¶1 I cannot sufficiently wonder, that any calling themselues Christians should make lesse account of the booke of God, then the..Heathens of their Rituall bookes.
1725 E. Chandler Def. Christianity i. 11 They were mere Ritual books, full of directions concerning sacrifices and expiations.
1832 W. Palmer Origines Liturg. I. xi. 187 The missal and other ritual books of Sarum.
1919 G. S. Richmond Red & Black xi. 184 A ritual-book, containing all the forms of service in use in the Church.
2007 K. Cast & P. C. Cast Betrayed xvi. 154 From what I'd read in the old ritual book, eucalyptus was associated with healing.
ritual choir n. the part of a church in which choir offices are performed.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > artefacts > division of building (general) > choir > [noun]
chorea1100
choirc1325
church choir1658
psalmody1664
ritual choir1848
schola cantorum1862
1848 G. A. Poole Hist. Eccl. Archit. vii. 148 In the interior the ritual choir extended into the nave.
1937 Times 11 May 7/4 The Benedictine monks..took more than their fair share when they pushed their ritual choir three bays into the nave.
2002 J. Crook in A. Thacker & R. Sharpe Local Saints & Local Churches v. 214 Over the western crypt a ritual choir was constructed.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1570