prelate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a senior clergyman and dignitary
    hierarch; high priest; primate; archpriest.

WordNet

Prel"ate noun
Etymology
F. prélat, LL. praelatus, fr. L. praelatus, used as p. p. of praeferre to prefer, but from a different root. See Elate.
Definitions
  1. A clergyman of a superior order, as an archbishop or a bishop, having authority over the lower clergy; a dignitary of the church. ✍ This word and the words derived from it are often used invidiously, in English ecclesiastical history, by dissenters, respecting the Established Church system.
    Hear him but reason in divinity, . . . You would desire the king were made a prelate. Shak.
Prel"ate intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To act as a prelate. Obs.
    Right prelating is busy laboring, and not lording. Latimer.

Webster 1913