pastoral
Of or pertaining to shepherds or herders of other livestock.
Relating to rural life and scenes, in particular of poetry.
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.
He wanders west as far as Memphis, a solitary migrant upon that flat and pastoral landscape.
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.
A poem describing the life and manners of shepherds; a poem in which the speakers assume the character of shepherds; an idyll; a bucolic.
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?
(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.
(religion, Christianity) A letter of a pastor to his charge; specifically, a letter addressed by a bishop to his diocese.
(religion, Christianity) A letter of the House of Bishops, to be read in each parish.