glebe

From Old French glebe, from Latin glaeba (“lump of earth, clod”). Doublet of gleba.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: glēb, IPA^(key): /ɡliːb/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɡlib/
• Rhymes: -iːb

glebe (plural glebes)

1. Turf; soil; ground; sod.
   • 1768, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

     Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,

     Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke

2. (historical) In medieval Europe, an area of land, belonging to a parish, whose revenues contributed towards the parish expenses.
3. (poetic) A field or meadow.
   • 1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, page 151:

     Admiring glebes their amber ears unfold, / And Labour sleep amid the waving gold.

4. (mining) A piece of earth containing ore.

• A number of places are named Glebe.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡlɛ.be/
• Rhymes: -ɛbe
• Hyphenation: glè‧be

glebe f

1. plural of gleba