pastoral

Of or pertaining to shepherds or herders of other livestock.

Like the Mesolithic age of 10,000-8000 B.C., the period 6000-4000 B.C. seems to be one of the fall of fortresses and the rise of pastoral nomadism.

Relating to rural life and scenes, in particular of poetry.

We were living a pastoral life.

[…] these pastoral farms, / Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke / Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!

Relating to the care of souls, to the pastor of a church or to any local religious leader charged with the service of individual parishioners, i.e. a priest or rabbi.

pastoral duties

a pastoral letter

A poem describing the life and manners of shepherds; a poem in which the speakers assume the character of shepherds; an idyll; a bucolic.

Ethel was silent from surprise: she had prepared herself for anger—even sorrow; but ridicule left her without an answer. What could she say to a hearer, who only smiled, and to whom emotion was only a scene in a pastoral?

A cantata relating to rural life; a composition for instruments characterized by simplicity and sweetness; a lyrical composition the subject of which is taken from rural life.

A letter of a pastor to his charge; specifically, a letter addressed by a bishop to his diocese.

A letter of the House of Bishops, to be read in each parish.