HOMILY

Hom″i‐ly (?), n.; pl. Homilies (#). [[LL. homilia, Gr. � communion, assembly, converse, sermon, fr. � an assembly, fr. � same; cf. � together, and � crowd, cf. � to press: cf. F. homélie. See Same.]] 1. 1. A discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience; a serious discourse. Shak.
2. 2. A serious or tedious exhortation in private on some moral point, or on the conduct of life.
As I have heard my father Deal out in his long homilies. Byron. Book of Homilies. A collection of authorized, printed sermons, to be read by ministers in churches, esp. one issued in the time of Edward VI., and a second, issued in the reign of Elizabeth; — both books being certified to contain a “godly and wholesome doctrine.”