popes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of pope.

   Several medieval popes are buried beneath the basilica.

   In that newsroom the senior editors behaved like popes, and nobody dared to question a headline they had approved.

   Note

   The plural reaches beyond the bishops of Rome. Heads of other religions can be popes, and so, usually with irony, can people whose word nobody in their field dares question. In Britain popes has also meant effigies of the pope, burnt on Guy Fawkes' Day. The same spelling serves the verb after he, she or it.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular present of pope.

   Note

   Both uses of the verb are intransitive, so popes never takes an object. One describes someone acting like a pope, laying down rulings no one may question; the other, a colloquial one, describes a person converting to Roman Catholicism. Only context separates them: a chairman who popes is being high-handed, while a priest who popes has changed churches.

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