Forms: 3 (Orm.) kirrke, 3–7 kirke, 4–6 kyrke, 4–7 kyrk, (4 kirc, 6 kerke, 6–9 kurk), 4– kirk. [Northern form of CHURCH: cf. OE. circe, and ON. kirkja, Da. kirke, Sw. kyrka.]
1. The Northern English and Scotch form of the word CHURCH, in all its senses.
a. In Northern English: formerly used as far south as Norfolk; and still extending in dialect use to north-east Lincolnshire: see E. D. D. Frequent in proper names all over its original area.
c. 1200. Ormin, 3533. Hallȝhedd inn hiss kirrke.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 92. Clerkes of holy kirke.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, Prol. Þis boke … is mast oysed in halykyrke seruys.
c. 1400. Melayne, 29. In kirkes and abbayes that there were.
c. 1450. Mirour Saluacioun, 1422. After the trewe kyrkes vsage.
c. 1550. Cheke, Matt. xvi. 18, note. Yis word church … commeth of ye greek κυριακόν … as ye north doth yet moor truli sound it, ye kurk, and we moor corruptli and frenchlike, ye church.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., July, 97. To Kerke the narre, from God more farre, Has bene an old-sayd sawe.
a. 1656. Ussher, Power Princes, II. (1683), 234. That place which … all men did call a Kirk.
1674–91. Ray, N. C. Words, 41. Kyrk, Church, κυριακόν.
1785. Hutton, Bran New Wark (Westmld.), 14. Be serious and devout, net come to kirk with a moon belief.
1802. in Anderson, Cumbld. Ball., 24. Helter skelter frae the kurk.
1828. Craven Dial., s.v., ‘He’s as poor as a kirk mouse.’
1877. Holderness Gloss., Kirk, a church. Not much used. That at Owthorne on the coast is called the ‘Sister Kirk.’
b. Used in literary Sc. till 17th c., and still retained in vernacular use in the general sense of ‘church.’
1375. Barbour, Bruce, II. 71. Quhen he … In-till the kyrk Schyr Ihone haid slayn.
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 574. The hie Mes was done, The King with mony cumly out of the Kirk is gane.
1567. Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.), 11. We trow the kirk Catholik be Ane Faithfull Christin cumpanie.
1643. Petit. Ass. Kirk Scot., in Clarendon, Hist. Reb., VI. § 340. The Kirk of England (which We ought to tender as our own Bowels).
1648. in Rec. Kirk of Scot. (1838), I. 507. All the corruptions that have been formerly in the Kirks of God in these Lands [England and Scotland].
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, Wks. (1711), 49. The Scottish kirk the English church do name; The English church the Scots a kirk do call.
a. 1653. Binning, Serm. (1743), 607. Unless their prayers do it, or their keeping the kirk.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Cupid turn’d Tinker, Wks. 1730, I. 112. At play-house and kirk Where he slily did lurk.
1786. Burns, Twa Dogs, 19. At kirk or market, mill or smiddie.
1894. ‘Ian Maclaren,’ Bonnie Brier Bush, Lachlan Campbell, iii. 145. Away on the right the Parish Kirk peeped out from a clump of trees.
c. In official use, the name ‘Kirk of Scotland’ gave place to ‘Church of Scotland’ at the date of the Westminster Assembly: see quots. 1645, 1648. But (d) in subsequent English (as opposed to Scottish) usage, the term ‘kirk’ has often been opposed to ‘church’ to distinguish the Church of Scotland from the Church of England, or from the Episcopal Church in Scotland. So Free Kirk for the Free Church of Scotland.
c. 1560. (title) The Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland.
1637–50. Row, Hist. Kirk (1842), 3. Instructed … in the exact knowledge of the Estate of this Kirk of Scotland.
1645. in Rec. Kirk of Scot. (1838), I. 431/1. Subscribed in name of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, by the Moderator of the Assembly [1648 Ibid. I. 506 (title), A Declaration and Exhortation of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to their Brethren of England.
1691. (title) The principal Acts of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland conveened at Edinburgh the 16th day of October, 1690.]
d. a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., XII. § 121. Nor did she [the queen] prefer the glory of the church of England before the sordidness of the kirk of Scotland.
1708. Swift, Sacram. Test, Wks. 1755, II. I. 135. To swear … as they do now in Scotland, to be true to the kirk.
1791. J. Hampson, Mem. J. Wesley, II. 19. A member of the kirk instantly associates with the ceremony of auricular confession.
1831. Macaulay, Ess., Hampden (1887), 219. This government … called a general assembly of the Kirk.
1850. Whipple, Ess. & Rev. (ed. 3), 1. 213. Examples which tell against kirk as well as against church.
1854. Kingsley, Lett., 22 Feb., in Life, xii. (1879), I. 321. Erskine and others think [the lectures] will do much good, but will infuriate the Free Kirk.
2. Sometimes affected to render Du. kerk, LG. kerke, or Ger. kirche.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., 25. Here [Delft] are two large Churches, the one called the old, the other the new Kirk.
1851. Longf., Gold Leg., II. Village Ch., 69. I may to yon kirk go, To read upon yon sweet book.
3. Phr. (Sc. colloq.) To make a kirk and a mill of: to put to any use one pleases, to do what one will with. But Kelly gives what may have been the earlier meaning.
1721. Kelly, Sc. Prov., 252. Make a Kirk and a Mill of it, that is, make your best of it: It does not answer to the English, ‘Make a Hog or a Dog of it’: For that means, bring it either to one use, or another.
1823. Galt, Entail, I. xviii. 147. The property is my own conquesting,… and surely I may mak a kirk and a mill o’t an I like.
1887. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ Mona’s Choice, II. vii. 173. I doubt but the man I let the land to is just making a kirk and a mill of it.
4. attrib. and Comb. (see also, in many cases, corresponding combinations of CHURCH): as kirk act, bell, door, -goer, government, preacher, rent, steeple, stile, vassal, writer; kirk-greedy, kirk-like adjs.; kirk-assembly, Assembly of the Church of Scotland; kirk-burial, burial within a church; kirk-fast, a fast ordained by the Church; † kirk-feuar Sc. = church-feuar (CHURCH sb. 18); kirk-gate, the high-way or street leading to a church; kirk-keeper Sc., a constant attendant at the kirk; † kirk-lair Sc., ‘a lair or burial place within a church, the right of burial within a church’ (Jam., Suppl.); † kirk-loom, church machine or utensil; kirk-shire (see quot.); kirk-skail, -skailing Sc., the dispersion of the congregation after divine service; kirk-work Sc. = CHURCH-WORK a.; kirk-wynd, the lane leading to a church. Also KIRK-ALE, -GARTH, -YARD, etc.
1606. Birnie, Kirk-Buriall, xix. The *Kirk acts against *Kirk-buriall.
1752. Carte, Hist. Eng., III. 425. Going … to the *Kirk-assembly at Edenburgh.
1830. Galt, Lawrie T., VI. ii. (1849), 257. To hear the far-off *kirk-bell ringing.
1814. Scott, Wav., xxx. He would drive a nail for no man on the Sabbath or *kirk-fast. Ibid. (1820), Monast., xvii. The son of a *kirk-feuar is not the stuff that lords and knights are made of.
1643. Declar. Commons (Reb. Ireland), 56. Desires for establishing Unity of Religion, and Uniformity of *Kirk-government.
1882. Jas. Walker, Jaunt to Auld Reekie, etc. 42. He neir was godly nor *kirk-greedy.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xi. A constant *kirk-keeper she is.
1606. Birnie, Kirk-Buriall, xix. Secluding all from the *Kirk-laire.
c. 1450. Holland, Howlat, 82. The plesant Pacok…. Constant and *kirklyk vnder his cler cape, Myterit, as the maner is.
1819. W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d (1827), 201. The mickle pu pit;… was the Cardinal’s ain *kirk-loom, He brocht it in a ship frae Rome.
1844. Lingard, Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858), I. iv. 144, note. These districts allotted to priests were called priestshires, shriftshires, or *kirkshires.
1843. Bethune, Scott. Peasant’s Fire-side, 283. Hame again At *kirk-skail time she came.
1819. Lockhart, Peter’s Lett., lxxiii. III. 265. When the service is over … (for which moment the Scotch have, in their language, an appropriate and picturesque term, the *kirk-skailing).
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, II. 312. The cock on a *kirk-steeple.
1552. Lyndesay, Monarche, 4729. Thay hauld the Corps at the *kirk style.
1820. Scott, Monast., iii. To hear ye even the Lady of Avenel to seeking quarters wi’ a *kirk-vassal’s widow!
1430. in 14th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. III. 21. [A penalty of £20 Scots to be paid to the] *kirkwerk [of Glasgow].
1467. [see CHURCH-WORK].
1680. G. Hickes, Spirit of Popery, Pref. i. Citing out of the *Kirk-Writers their Papal,… Schismatical and Rebellious Principles.
1888. Barrie, When a Man’s Single, i. A kitchen in the *kirk-wynd of Thrums.
