churched

1. 1
   adjective

   Regularly taking part in church services and activities, and accepting the church's teachings.

   Their churched neighbors spent most weekends helping run the parish charity.

   He remained churched well into old age, never missing a Sunday morning.

   Similarpracticing, devout, observant

   Oppositelapsed, irreligious

   Note

   Mostly a word of surveys and social research, and nearly always half of a pair: the churched and the unchurched. With the, it works as a plural noun for a whole group. George Gallup and Jim Castelli's The People's Religion (1989) compares voter registration among "the unchurched," "the churched" and "the superchurched." Before a noun it keeps the same contrast in view, as in churched men set against unchurched men.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of church.

   The vicar churched several women in a single afternoon during the busy season.

   She was churched according to the old custom before returning to daily life.

   Note

   The verb behind this form names something done to a person, so it sits easily in the passive. A woman was churched after childbirth, or a newly married couple after their wedding, in a service of thanksgiving and blessing. That rite is historical, so the form now belongs mostly to accounts of older custom. A second sense, to give someone a religious upbringing, also takes a direct object: they churched their children.

3. 3
   adjective

   Provided with a church, as a town, parish, or settled community is.

   The newly churched settlement finally had a building for Sunday worship.

   A well-churched district often supported a school and a poorhouse alongside its chapel.

   Note

   A word about places rather than people. A community can be churched to a greater or lesser degree, so the word takes adverbs like well or sufficiently. The Proceedings of the First Interdenominational Conference (1911) worried about new churches in "an already sufficiently churched community," a fear of too many buildings rather than of too little faith. For people, the churchgoing meaning takes over.

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