Provincial
[prə'vɪnʃ(ə)l] or [prə'vɪnʃl]
Definition
(noun.) (Roman Catholic Church) an official in charge of an ecclesiastical province acting under the superior general of a religious order; 'the general of the Jesuits receives monthly reports from the provincials'.
(adj.) characteristic of the provinces or their people; 'deeply provincial and conformist'; 'in that well-educated company I felt uncomfortably provincial'; 'narrow provincial attitudes' .
(adj.) of or associated with a province; 'provincial government' .
Checked by Darren--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Of or pertaining to province; constituting a province; as, a provincial government; a provincial dialect.
(a.) Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province; not cosmopolitan; countrified; not polished; rude; hence, narrow; illiberal.
(a.) Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical; as, a provincial synod.
(a.) Of or pertaining to Provence; Provencal.
(n.) A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.
(n.) A monastic superior, who, under the general of his order, has the direction of all the religious houses of the same fraternity in a given district, called a province of the order.
Editor: Rosalie
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Of a province, of provinces.[2]. Rude, unpolished, unrefined, rustic, countrified.
Inputed by Annie
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Appendant, annexed, outlying, rural, countrified, rustic, bucolic
ANT:Central, metropolitan, modish, fashionable, courtly
Checker: Velma
Definition
adj. pertaining to Provence or Provené°l.—Provincial rose the cabbage-rose—from Provins-rose Provins in Seine-et-Marne being famous for its roses: (Shak.) a rosette formerly worn on the shoe.
Checked by Elisha
Examples
- Worse quarters than Defarge's wine-shop, could easily have been found in Paris for a provincial slave of that degree. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- Mentally he was in a provincial future, that is, he was in many points abreast with the central town thinkers of his date. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- The customary expedient of provincial girls and men in such circumstances is churchgoing. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Franklin's great-grandfather had been imprisoned for writing sa tirical verses about some provincial magnate. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Provincial, said the spy. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- There were present deputies from all the best provincial choral societies; genuine, barrel-shaped, native Labassecouriens. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Everywhere the provincial rulers set up for themselves. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Whether those pleading orators were persons educated in the general knowledge of equity, or only in provincial, national, and other local customs? Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- The provincial people, intimidated by Gudrun's perfect sang-froid and exclusive bareness of manner, said of her: 'She is a smart woman. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Many of his officials, particularly his provincial officials, had great subordinate establishments, and were constantly tending to become independent. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- There are few things better worth the pains in a provincial town like this, said Lydgate. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- He became afterward a merchant of great note, and one of our provincial judges. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- If Menelaus had been ruler of Lutetia, Helen would never have been persuaded to leave it for a dull provincial town like Troy. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Should it meet in Paris or in some provincial city? H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The phraseology betrays the particular provincial tradition within which the author is writing. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
Typist: Remington