glebe

See also: glebę and glèbe

English

Etymology

From Old French glebe, from Latin glaeba (“lump of earth, clod”). Doublet of gleba.

Pronunciation

• enPR: glēb, IPA^(key): /ɡliːb/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -iːb

Noun

glebe (plural glebes)

1. Turf; soil; ground; sod.
   • 1768, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

     Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,

     Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke

2. (historical) In medieval Europe, an area of land, belonging to a parish, whose revenues contributed towards the parish expenses.
3. (poetic) A field or meadow.
   • 1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page 151:

     Admiring glebes their amber ears unfold, / And Labour sleep amid the waving gold.

4. (mining) A piece of earth containing ore.

Usage notes

• A number of places are named Glebe.

Derived terms

• glebe-house
• glebe-farm
• glebe-land

Translations

turf

• Bulgarian: земя (bg) f (zemja), почва (bg) f (počva)
• Macedonian: зе́мја (mk) f (zémja), по́чва f (póčva)
• Russian: дёрн (ru) (djorn)

area of land belonging to a parish

• Bulgarian: църковна земя f (cǎrkovna zemja)
• Greek: βακούφι (el) n (vakoúfi), μετόχι (el) n (metóchi)
• Macedonian: цр́ковно зе́мјиште n (cŕkovno zémjište)
• Scottish Gaelic: glìb f

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡlɛ.be/
• Rhymes: -ɛbe
• Hyphenation: glè‧be

Noun

glebe f

1. plural of gleba