Canterbury

Also found in: Thesaurus, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Can·ter·bur·y

(kăn′tər-bĕr′ē, -brē, -tə-)

A city of southeast England east-southeast of London. Its 11th-century cathedral, the seat of the primate of the Church of England, became an important medieval pilgrimage center after the murder there of Thomas à Becket (1170).

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

canterbury

(ˈkæntəbərɪ; -brɪ)

n, pl -buries

1. (Furniture) a late 18th-century low wooden stand with partitions for holding cutlery and plates: often mounted on casters

2. (Furniture) a similar 19th-century stand used for holding sheet music, music books, or magazines

Canterbury

(ˈkæntəbərɪ; -brɪ)

1. (Placename) a city in SE England, in E Kent: starting point for St Augustine's mission to England (597 ad); cathedral where St Thomas à Becket was martyred (1170); seat of the archbishop and primate of England; seat of the University of Kent (1965). Pop: 43 552 (2001). Latin name: Durovernum

2. (Placename) a regional council area of New Zealand, on E central South Island on Canterbury Bight: mountainous with coastal lowlands; agricultural. Chief town: Christchurch. Pop: 520 500 (2004 est). Area: 43 371 sq km (16 742 sq miles)

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Can•ter•bur•y

(ˈkæn tərˌbɛr i, -bə ri; esp. Brit. -bri)

n.

1. a city in E Kent, in SE England: early ecclesiastical center of England. 132,400.

2. a municipality in E New South Wales, in SE Australia: suburb of Sydney. 115,100.

Can`ter•bu′ri•an (-ˈbyʊər i ən) adj.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun

Canterbury - a town in Kent in southeastern England; site of the cathedral where Thomas a Becket was martyred in 1170; seat of the archbishop and primate of the Anglican Church

Kent - a county in southeastern England on the English Channel; formerly an Anglo-Saxon kingdom, it was the first to be colonized by the Romans

Translations

Canterbury Cantórbery

Canterbury

[ˈkæntəbərɪ]

A. N → Cantórbery m

B. CPD Canterbury Tales NPL → Cuentos mpl de Cantórbery

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

References in classic literature ?

The great work of the period, however, and the crowning achievement of Chaucer's life, is 'The Canterbury Tales.' Every one is familiar with the plan of the story (which may well have had some basis in fact): how Chaucer finds himself one April evening with thirty other men and women, all gathered at the Tabard Inn in Southwark (a suburb of London and just across the Thames from the city proper), ready to start next morning, as thousands of Englishmen did every year, on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St.

His mind and eye were keen, besides, for moral qualities; he penetrated directly through all the pretenses of falsehood and hypocrisy; while how thoroughly he understood and respected honest worth appears in the picture of the Poor Parson in the Prolog to 'The Canterbury Tales.' Himself quiet and self-contained, moreover, Chaucer was genial and sympathetic toward all mankind.

View in context

Individuals had come from the rich establishment at Lebanon, from Canterbury, Harvard, and Alfred, and from all the other localities where this strange people have fertilized the rugged hills of New England by their systematic industry.

"Nay, brother," said the elder from Canterbury, "the hoar-frost and the black-frost hath done its work on Brother Adam and Sister Martha, even as we sometimes discern its traces in our cornfields, while they are yet green.

View in context

In those days it needed a bold man to use such words, and Wyclif was soon called upon to answer for his boldness before the Archbishop of Canterbury and all his bishops.

But the University stood by him until the King added his orders to those of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Then Wyclif was expelled from the University, but still not silenced, for he went into the country and there wrote and taught.

View in context

'I beg your pardon,' said Miss Snevellicci, sidling towards Nicholas, 'but did you ever play at Canterbury?'

'I recollect meeting a gentleman at Canterbury,' said Miss Snevellicci, 'only for a few moments, for I was leaving the company as he joined it, so like you that I felt almost certain it was the same.'

View in context

When you left, three miles of the London, Canterbury and Dover were ready for the rails, and also ready and ripe for manipulation in the stock-market.

View in context

'Should you like to go to school at Canterbury?' said my aunt.

View in context

Pocket was the only daughter of a certain quite accidental deceased Knight, who had invented for himself a conviction that his deceased father would have been made a Baronet but for somebody's determined opposition arising out of entirely personal motives - I forget whose, if I ever knew - the Sovereign's, the Prime Minister's, the Lord Chancellor's, the Archbishop of Canterbury's, anybody's - and had tacked himself on to the nobles of the earth in right of this quite supposititious fact.

View in context

"I go a pilgrim to Canterbury Town," answered Will Stutely, speaking gruffly, so that none might know his voice.