2. A serious or tedious exhortation in private on some moral
point, or on the conduct of life.
As I have heard my father Deal out in his long
homilies. --Byron.
{Book of Homilies}. A collection of authorized, printed
sermons, to be read by ministers in churches, esp. one
issued in the time of Edward VI., and a second, issued in
the reign of Elizabeth; -- both books being certified to
contain a ``godly and wholesome doctrine.''