a. (sb.) [f. L. clēric-āl-is, f. clēric-us clergyman: see prec.]
A. adj. 1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, the clergy or a clergyman (esp. in their professional capacity).
1592. trans. Junius on Rev. xiii. 17. Clericall tonsure or shaving.
1649. Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., II. 1. (T.). Meet for clerical and religious persons.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., I. 5. The hard yoke of clerical usurpation.
1829. Lytton, Devereux, I. ii. His garb was as little clerical as possible.
1876. Mozley, Univ. Serm., iv. 82. The ambition of the clerical order has always been attended by peculiarly repulsive features.
2. Of or pertaining to a clerk or penman (see CLERK 5), of clerks; esp. in clerical error, an error made in writing anything out.
1798. Bay, Amer. Law Rep. (1809), I. 82. The word was omitted through a clerical mistake in the person who drew the will.
1838. Gurwood, Wellington Disp., IV. 105, note. It is supposed that this is a clerical error.
1865. New York World, 13 Oct. A clerical force is employed to keep the accounts and attend to the correspondence.
1879. Daily News, 16 Sept., 3/3. The details of a scheme for remodelling the clerical service of the Customs upon the lines laid down by the Playfair Commission, have only just been settled.
B. sb. A cleric: one of a clerical party.
1837. Marryat, Dog-fiend, xxxiii. We except the clericals.
1871. Daily News, 21 Sept., 5/4. The German party was to make way for the Czechs and clericals.
1882–3. Schaff, Encycl. Rel. Knowl., I. 31. The Sixth Council of Orleans deposed every clerical who had committed adultery.
b. pl. Clerical garments (colloq.; cf. academicals, canonicals).
1865. Athenæum, No. 1989. 802/3. Donning ‘a suit of clericals.’
