Definition of "presbytery" [pres•by•ter•y]

• A court composed of Presbyterian Church ministers and representative elders of a particular locality. (noun)
• The district represented by this court. (noun)
• Presbyters considered as a group. (noun)
• Government of a church by presbyters. (noun)
• The section of a church reserved for the clergy. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This care, due to the most principal and worthy person, was always committed to the bishop; and when the churches were many, the propositions and deliberations were made by the bishop first in the college of the priests and deacons, which they called the presbytery, and there were ripened, to receive afterward the last resolution in the general congregation of the church."
• "Presbyterial, consisting of the ministers and elders of several adjacent or neighboring single congregations, or parish churches, ruling those several congregations in common; this kind of assembly is commonly called the presbytery, or, for distinction's sake, the classical presbytery, i.e. the presbytery of such a rank of churches."
• "In modern times the house of the clergy is frequently called the presbytery (presbytère)."