missionn.

Brit.

/ˈmɪʃn/, U.S.

/ˈmɪʃ(ə)n/

Forms: 1500s missyon, 1500s– mission.

Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French mission; Latin missiōn-, missiō.

Etymology: < Middle French, French mission (c1350 in sense 1; 1636 in sense ‘action of entrusting a task to an ambassador’; 1656 in sense 8; late 17th cent. in senses 2b and 4a; earlier in Anglo-Norman and Old French in sense ‘expenses, outlay’ (12th cent.)) and its etymon classical Latin missiōn-, missiō sending, dismissal, sending of ambassadors (see sense 7a), in post-classical Latin also ‘sending of Christ into the world’ (4th cent.), ‘sending of the Holy Spirit into the world’ (4th or 5th cent. in Augustine) < miss- , past participial stem of mittere to send (further etymology uncertain) + -iō -ion suffix¹. Compare Old Occitan missio royal delegation (1307), Spanish misión (mid 13th cent. in sense ‘expenses, expenditure’), Italian missione (14th cent.).

I. Christian Church.

1. In Trinitarian theology: the sending into the world of the Son or Spirit by the Father, or of the Spirit by the Son, esp. for the purpose of salvation.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the supernatural > deity > Christian God > the Trinity > [noun] > person of > sending of one by another

missiona1513

a1513 J. Irland Meroure of Wyssdome (1990) III. 18 Eftir þar confirmacioun and the missioun of the haly spreit to þame þai preichit the euuangel and the law of ihesu w^t gret strenth and hardines.

1530 R. Whitford Werke for Housholders (new ed.) G.iii^v The missyon or sendynge of þ^e holy ghost.

1610 Bible (Douay) II. Joel ii. Comm. The mission of the Holie Ghost performed on Whitsunday.

1676 M. Hale Contempl. Moral & Divine i. 310 The miraculous Mission of his Holy Spirit visibly and audibly.

1745 D. De Coetlogon Universal Hist. Arts & Sci. II. 1180 The Mission whereby Christ came into the World in the human Flesh.

1752 J. Gill Doctr. Trinity (ed. 2) vii. 138 The greatness of God's love in the gift and mission of his Son.

1846 J. C. Hare (title) The Mission of the Comforter.

1897 Catholic Dict. (ed. 5) 904/1 It cannot..be said that all three Persons are sent, because mission consists in the procession of one Person from another.

1952 G. D. Smith Teaching of Catholic Church (ed. 2) iv. 139 In the Incarnation of the Son of God we have a visible mission in its greatest possible perfection, whilst visible missions of the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove and of parted tongues of fire are recorded in the New Testament.

1985 E. Hill Mystery of Trinity ix. 88 His [sc. Christ's] mission was accompanied by the mission of the Holy Spirit, and both missions had the effect of revealing the eternal processions of these persons from the Father.

1989 F. E. Crowe Appropriating Lonergan Idea 327 Let me spend a moment on the single point of the order of the divine missions, defending my reversal of the traditional order of Son and Spirit.

a. A body of priests, esp. Jesuits, trained in seminaries abroad and sent to the British Isles to spread the Catholic faith and minister to the Recusant population; the enterprise or purpose for which such a body is sent or established. Now historical.

ΘΚΠ

society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun] > among Jesuits

mission1598

1598 in H. Foley Rec. Eng. Province Soc. Jesus (1878) III. 723 Ye continuallie confluence of the rares and bestes [sic] wittes of our nation to the Seminaires, and ther constance in following their missions.

1598 in H. Foley Rec. Eng. Province Soc. Jesus (1878) III. 724 Thes evident testimones of missions and remissions..sent continuallie to Fr. P. by expresse messingers.

1606 in H. Foley Rec. Eng. Province Soc. Jesus (1878) III. 268 Beinge sent in mission to the Colledge of Siville.

1629 J. Wadsworth Eng. Spanish Pilgrime iii. 29 His place..was Prefect of the English Mission.

1644 A. Corbington Let. 26 Oct. in H. Foley Rec. Eng. Province Soc. Jesus (1878) III. 66 My brother..was one of that mission for Valladolid, which was taken either by the Turks or other pirates.

1693 Publ. Catholic Rec. Soc. (1911) 9 107 Mr William Bernard of Doway, hath been on the mission about 11 or 12 yrs.

1784 J. Barnard Life R. Challoner vi. 88 He set out from Doway to come upon the London Mission.

1796 Bp. G. Hay in Ushaw Mag. Dec. (1913) 285 There is nothing in it that interferes with the Resolution of the English Mission in 1688.

1885 Dict. National Biogr. V. 422 On being converted to catholicism he..repaired to the English college of Douay,..was ordained priest, and sent back on the mission in 1581.

1954 Tablet 22 May 493/1 John Penketh, or Rivers, S.J.,..came on the English mission in 1706.

1989 J. Campbell-Kease Compan. Local Hist. Res. 355 The Jesuit mission to England began in 1580.

b. A body of persons sent out by a religious organization to evangelize abroad; the enterprise or expedition on which they are sent (frequently in foreign missions: see foreign mission n. 1).

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society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun] > effort involved in preparation or equipment of

mission1622

society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun] > one who conducts > collectively

mission1622

missionary1719

1622 F. Bacon Advt. Holy Warre in Misc. Wks. (1629) 96 The Church..maketh her Missions, into the Extreme Parts, of the Nations, and Isles.

1648 T. Gage Eng.-Amer. 3 Missions..of Voluntiers, Fryers mendicants, Priests or Monkes, or else of forced Jesuites.

1660 F. Brooke tr. V. Le Blanc World Surveyed 42 S. Francis Xaverius..was called the Apostle of the Indies, his order continues their mission thither stil.

1660 J. Dryden Astræa Redux 11 Like Zealous Missions they did care pretend Of souls in shew, but made the Gold their end.

1723 R. Millar Hist. Propagation Christianity II. viii. 368 The Congregation has sent Missions thither.

1768 A. Maclaine tr. J. L. von Mosheim Eccl. Hist. (ed. 2) Cent. xvii. i. §18 The African missions were allotted to this austere Order by the court of Rome.

1796 Missionary Mag. 1 92 The funds for foreign Missions are not considerable.

1830 Encycl. Brit. II. 632/2 A mission consists in general of one or two friars or priests, who settle among the savages [etc.].

1841 B. Shaw Memorials Southern Afr. (rev. ed.) 304 Thus lived and thus died Jan Kapitein, a converted Coranna, the fruit of missionary labour, and a crown of rejoicing to the friends of missions in the day of the Lord.

1864 Chambers's Encycl. VI. 488/2 The mission in the south of India soon received the support of the English Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

1909 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Avonlea xxviii. 336 I'm wholesomely ashamed to think that a new dress..should exhilarate me so, when a good conscience and an extra contribution to Foreign Missions couldn't do it.

1964 D. Hall Roof of Tiger Lilies 28 ‘St Peter's,’ Said my friend, ‘where Bishop Cedd made his mission To Saxons in six-hundred-fifty.’

1985 D. B. Coplan In Township Tonight! ii. 46 Most of the European missions followed their rural converts to the Rand.

1992 New Republic 4 May 33/2 There are some powerful ironies in Habad's new messianic universalism, in its mission to the gentiles.

a. The action of sending men or women forth with authority to preach the faith and administer the sacraments; an instance of this. Also: the authority given by God or the Church to preach.

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society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun]

mission1641

mission?1821

missionizing1858

missioning1886

missionarism1890

missionization1891

1641 J. Jackson True Evangelical Temper iii. 186 Christ..in the Mission first of his Twelve, and after of his Seventy.

1656 T. Blount Glossographia Mission (says a Roman Catholick Author) is a giving of Orders, Jurisdiction and power to preach that Doctrine, which is taught by the Catholick Church, and to administer the Sacraments.

a1699 E. Stillingfleet 50 Serm. (1707) xlviii. 729 That Christ and his Apostles did work..Miracles..and this for a Confirmation of their Divine Mission.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) Jesus Christ gave his Disciples their Mission in these Words, Go, and teach all Nations, &c. The Romanists reproach the Protestants, that their ministers have no mission.

1737 R. Challoner Catholick Christian Instructed ii. 8 Men..who so far from having any Orders or Mission, had not so much as Baptism.

1788 J. Bradford (title) An address to the inhabitants of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, on the mission of the two ministers sent by the Countess of Huntingdon.

1845 K. H. Digby Mores Catholici i. ii. iii. 126/1 Admitting that he [sc. Novatian] might have had ordination, he could not have had mission.

1884 W. E. Addis & T. Arnold Catholic Dict. 584/2 Mission is inseparably connected with jurisdiction.

1894 J. T. Fowler in St. Adamnan Vita S. Columbae Introd. 28 To obtain consecration and mission from Pope Caelestine I.

1983 A. Richardson & J. Bowden New Dict. Christian Theol. 372/1 Theology of mission, reflection on the purpose and nature of Christian mission, became a recognized branch or dimension of Christian theology in the course of the modern missionary movement.

1990 Illustr. London News Summer No. 91/3 Topical, political play by David Hare, about four south-London clergymen struggling to make sense of their mission in the inner city.

b. Congregation of the Priests of the Mission n. (and variants) a Roman Catholic religious order founded by St Vincent de Paul (1581–1660) in 1625, originally to evangelize the rural poor but subsequently assuming additional educational and other objectives. Now more usually known as Lazarists, Vincentians (see Lazarist n., Vincentian n.¹ and adj.¹).

ΘΚΠ

society > faith > church government > monasticism > religious order > other religions > Lazarist > [noun]

Congregation of the Priests of the Mission1656

missionary1656

Lazarite1728

Lazarist1747

1656 T. Blount Glossographia at Missionaries Also, a particular institute in France, called the Fathers of the Mission; who go by pairs,..preach and catechize, and perform other pastoral Offices.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) Mission is also the Name of a Congregation of Priests, and Laymen, instituted by Vincent de Paul, and confirmed in 1626 by Pope Urban VIII. under the Title of Priests of the Congregation of the Mission.

1845 Encycl. Metrop. XIII. 488/1 The Priests of the Mission..acted as home-missionaries.

1886 (title) Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor. A historical study. By a Priest of the Congregation of the Mission.

1991 Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic Encycl. 959/2 In 1625 he established his Congregation of Priests of the Mission, whose purpose it was to evangelize the poor country people.

a. A permanent establishment of missionaries abroad; a missionary post or station; a mission house.

ΘΚΠ

society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun] > post or station

mission1770

station1799

society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun] > post or station > in particular district

mission1770

1770 Ann. Reg. 1769 189 An officer that has lived seven years in the missions of Paraguay.

1825 R. Southey Tale of Paraguay iii. xiv They..To the nearest mission sped and ask'd the Jesuit's aid.

1837 R. Giddy in B. Shaw Memorials Southern Afr. (1841) 227 I have now to take leave of this people, having received orders from the Committee to remove to the Bechuana Mission.

1843 F. Marryat Narr. Trav. M. Violet II. ii. 38 The mission of Conception..is a very large stone building.

1857 R. Gray Jrnl. of Visitation to Diocese of Grahamstown 44 Not liking the atmosphere of the great hut, in which there was a charcoal fire,..I told Sandilli I must return to the Mission.

1880 C. R. Markham Peruvian Bark 65 Dr. Weddell descended the river Tipuani to Guanay, a mission of Lecos Indians.

1922 E. P. Johnson Legends of Vancouver 35 I saw her graceful, high-bowed canoe heading for the beach that is the favourite landing-place of the ‘tillicums’ from the Mission.

1936 S. & E. Afr. Year Bk. & Guide 527 Between Kakamas and Springbok, in the heart of Bushmanland, lies the notable French R. C. Mission of Pella.

1958 R. K. Narayan Guide v. 68 ‘How has he come to be a Christian?’ ‘There was a mission somewhere here.’

1986 R. B. Morrison & C. R. Wilson Native Peoples x. 230 Socially, many contemporary local Algonquian communities trace roots back to nuclei of settlement around trading posts and missions.

b. An establishment for missionary, evangelical, or humanitarian work at home; spec. a Roman Catholic institution in a predominantly non-Catholic country.

ΚΠ

1812 C. Butler in Butler's Lives Saints (new ed.) I. 12 The vicar-apostolic of the middle district..appointed him to a mission in Staffordshire.

1845 Catholic Directory 27 Hackney... This interesting Mission was established in July, 1843.

1884 W. E. Addis & T. Arnold Catholic Dict. 585/2 In countries where the majority of the population is non-Catholic..the priests having charge of souls are not inducted into parishes, but stationed on missions.

1903 C. E. Osborne Life Fr. Dolling v It was resolved that Magdalen College should adopt S. Martin's Maidman Street, as its mission.

1925 W. J. Bryan Mem. 456 One night..we went to a mission along the water front in New York City.

1993 Dict. National Biogr.: Missing Persons 229/2 In 1848 he began his life's work—the mission in Burntisland, Fife. There he opened a day-school in 1849.

c. With distinguishing word, esp. in home mission n. at home n.¹ and adj. Compounds 2. See also city mission n. at city n. Compounds 2.

ΘΚΠ

society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun]

mission1641

mission?1821

missionizing1858

missioning1886

missionarism1890

missionization1891

?1821 (title) Christian patriotism and Home Missions inseparable.

1836 Home Missionary Mag. 37/1 Endeavour to engage Ministers..to promote the great cause of Home Missions.

1844 R. Wardlaw Lect. Prov. (1869) II. 16 Town missions and country missions.

1861 E. L. Cutts (title) Home Missions and Church Extension.

1909 N.Y. Observer 2 Sept. 316/1 The Home Mission Committee of Buffalo Presbytery has set itself earnestly to the task of bringing its dependent churches to self-support.

1932 Extension Mag. Feb. 2 (heading) Extension Magazine The Official Organ of the Home Missions.

1986 Shetland Times 7 Nov. 4/3 They were taken to the fishermen's mission where Skipper Fletcher and his men spent the night before flying home yesterday.

5. An intensive course of preaching, services, and other religious activities organized to stimulate interest in the Christian faith, or in the work of a parish or particular church.

ΘΚΠ

society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > revival > [noun] > series of services, etc., to bring about

mission1772

revival1799

1772 T. Nugent tr. J. F. de Isla Hist. Friar Gerund I. 287 (note) In the time of Lent many preachers go about from town to town, inveighing vehemently against sin, and strenuously exhorting to repentance, which is called going upon a Mission.

1826 H. D. Best Four Years France xiv. 301 In the second year of my sojourn, a mission was preached at Avignon.

1862 H. Furniss Confession §xv. 16 One night during the Mission he went into the church. He stood near the platform where the missioner was preaching.

1906 Church Times 26 Oct. 513 The first service of the Ruridecanal Hampstead Mission.

1991 O. Chadwick Michael Ramsey 2 In February 1926 the religious groups in the university agreed..upon the common organization of a mission to the university.

†II. gen.

6. The action or an act or instance of sending or being sent. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > movement > transference > sending > [noun]

emission1607

mission1609

sending1627

1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida iii. iii. 183 Whose glorious deeds..Made emulous missions mongst the gods them selues, And draue great Mars to faction.

1647 T. Matthew Missive of Consol. Pref. sig. A 2 This Mission of my thoughts into my country.

1658 F. Osborne Advice to Son in Wks. (1673) 225 Nor can this Mission to the Tower be looked upon for less than the best Fortune so high a Malefactor could be capable of.

1662 W. Petty Treat. Taxes 13 The numerous missions of Cattle and Sheep out of Ireland.

1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 87 The Extent of the Presidency is larger in its Missions than Residency.

1819 Examiner 31 Jan. 68/1 A letter..of the receipt, and even mission, of which there is not an atom of proof.

III. Politics and Diplomatic.

a. The sending of representatives to a foreign country, esp. for the purpose of conducting negotiations, establishing political or commercial relations, watching over certain interests, etc.; a body of persons thus sent.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > rule or government > politics > international politics or relations > diplomacy > [noun] > ambassador or envoy > body of

ambassade1425

embassade?a1439

legacyc1480

legation1509

ambassage1540

embassage1601

embassy1611

ambassy1620

mission1626

1626 F. Bacon New Atlantis 19 in Sylua Syluarum That in either of these Shipps, ther should be a Mission of three of the Fellowes, or Brethren of Salomon's House; whose Errand was onely to giue vs Knowledge of the Affaires..of those Countries, to which they were designed.

1662 W. Petty Treat. Taxes 27 The envy which precedent missions of English [in Ireland] have against the subsequent.

1770 T. Percy tr. P. H. Mallet Northern Antiq. I. p. xlviii He sent the celebrated Mission of the Literati to explore the interior parts of Arabia.

1791 G. Washington in Amer. State Papers (1833) I. 127 An additional motive for this confidential mission arose in the same quarter.

1813 Edinb. Rev. Feb. 155 The French mission was still suffered to remain in Stockholm, until the Moniteur mentioned the behaviour of Gustavus disrespectfully.

a1827 T. H. Horne in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) XVIII. 26/1 (1) Diplomatic Missions..the object of which is, affairs of State or Politics..; (2) Missions of Ceremony or Etiquette, the object of which is, notifications or compliments of congratulation or condolence..; (3) Fixed Missions, in which the Diplomatic Agent..is charged with watching over the various objects above mentioned.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 95/1 In December 1903 an American mission visited Adis Ababa, and a commercial treaty between the United States and Abyssinia was signed.

1940 J. F. Kennedy Why Eng. Slept viii. 191 Britain had sent a small mission to Canada and to the United States to investigate the possibilities of obtaining aircraft there.

1977 Daily Tel. 1 Sept. 2/6 A joint mission from Northern Ireland to America to promote industrial investment, would be acceptable to official Unionists and the Social Democratic and Labour party.

b. Originally U.S. A permanent diplomatic establishment, embassy, or legation.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > rule or government > politics > international politics or relations > diplomacy > [noun] > diplomat > collectively > accredited to specific court or capital

corps diplomatique1796

foreign service1799

mission1805

foreign mission1819

1805 Amer. State Papers (1832) II. 669 As nothing was said in my communication respecting the ordinary mission, it remains of course in force.

1833 Reg. Deb. Congress U.S. App. 31 Jan. 87/1 The important papers of his mission must be kept in a tavern.

1890 Cent. Dict. (at cited word) The members of the British mission at Washington.

1923 G. Buchanan My Mission to Russia I. vii. 77 The Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs had omitted to invite the Bulgarian agent to a banquet, given [by] the heads of missions in honour of the Sultan's birthday.

1993 N.Y. Times 7 Nov. ii. 33/2 A cache of recorded folk songs..had been donated by Major General Edward Lansdale, an Air Force officer who ran the Senior Liaison Office of the United States Mission in Saigon.

IV. A task, an undertaking.

8. The commission, business, or function with which a messenger, envoy, or agent is entrusted; esp. the task entrusted to a political or diplomatic mission.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > rule or government > politics > international politics or relations > diplomacy > [noun] > the sending of ambassadors or envoys > mission or function of ambassador

ambassade1395

embassadryc1405

ambassadryc1410

embassadec1453

bassade1458

basetry1462

ambassy1560

embassy1563

mission1671

embassage1677

1671 J. Milton Paradise Regain'd ii. 114 How to accomplish best His end of being on Earth, and mission high.

1704 R. Nelson Compan. Festivals & Fasts i. iv. 48 None of the rest of the Apostles stand in competition with St. Paul for this Mission [sc. of converting Britain].

1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall V. xlix. 102 The formidable name and mission of the Dragon, his visitor-general.

1820 W. Scott Abbot I. ii. 39 ‘No,’ answered the old woman, sternly; ‘to part is enough. I go forth on my own mission.’

1836 C. Thirlwall Hist. Greece III. 365 Phæax possessed talents well suited for negotiation,..but..he met with such opposition as to deter him from proceeding further on the business of his mission.

1863 Ld. Russell in R. F. Burton Mission to Gelele (1864) p. x You were informed..that you had been selected by her Majesty's Government to proceed on a Mission to the King of Dahomey, to confirm the friendly sentiments expressed by Commodore Wilmot to the King.

1873 E. E. Hale In his Name vi. 108 It seemed to him..that there was not one..who seemed to take the least interest in his mission.

1919 J. Conrad Arrow of Gold i. iii The friar met me in the corridor and informed me that I would be ordered to escort that most loyal and noble lady back to the French frontier as a personal mission of the highest honour.

1951 S. Themerson Wooff Wooff vii. 40 I'm just going off on my job, and that's a very important mission. The future of the world may depend on it.

1985 E. Kuzwayo Call me Woman ii. xiv. 212 The ‘leader’ of this trio started telling me about their mission, namely, that his department was thinking of releasing me.

a. A task which a person is designed or destined to do; a duty or function imposed on or assumed by a person; a person's vocation or work in life, a strongly felt aim or ambition in life. Also in extended use.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > [noun] > regular occupation, trade, or profession > vocation

clepingc1384

vocationa1492

call1536

calling1704

mission1819

the world > action or operation > undertaking > [noun] > an undertaking > thing(s) to be done > a (difficult) task > which one is designed to do

mission1819

1819 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto II clxxxii. 210 Who..Thought daily service was her only mission.

1839 T. Carlyle Chartism iii. 20 Work is the mission of man in this Earth.

1843 W. H. Prescott Hist. Conquest Mexico II. iv. iii. 163 They..held it to be their ‘mission’ (to borrow the cant phrase of our own day) to conquer and to convert.

1848 Ld. Brougham Of Revol. in Wks. (1857) VIII. 322 She [sc. France]..has a mission, what we would term a vocation, to hasten and help the Discontented.

1850 W. Wordsworth Prelude i. 3 Whate'er its mission, the soft breeze can come To none more grateful than to me.

1881 W. S. Gilbert Patience ii. 34 I am a man with a mission.

1916 G. Saintsbury Peace of Augustans i. 8 This was its mission—to get English prose into something like the order which..English verse had actually reached.

1957 L. Durrell Justine ii. 113 The mission of the Cabal, if it has one, is so to ennoble function that even eating and excreting will be raised to the rank of arts.

1990 Voice of Arab World 25 Dec. 24 Saddam..can be patently sincere. He is an empire builder with a mission.

b. on a mission: determined to achieve a goal, complete a task, fulfil an obligation, etc.

ΚΠ

1988 S. Lee Jrnl. 3 June in Do Right Thing (1989) 88 As of this weekend..I'm on a mission. I'm gonna concentrate 100 percent on the script.

1991 Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee) 24 Nov. d1/4 We had to prove..to everyone around the country that we are on a mission.

1997 ‘Q’ Deadmeat 169 Bones was a man on a mission, he was at the front end of it all.

2000 Herald (Glasgow) (Electronic ed.) 12 Sept. Safin arrived at the Open on a mission.

10.

a. A military operation, esp. one carried out by aircraft, in the course of a conflict. Also: an expedition undertaken for scientific or exploratory purposes.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military operations > [noun]

service?1560

operation1749

show1892

mission1910

op1916

party1918

society > armed hostility > hostilities in the air > [noun] > air operation

mission1910

air raid1914

sortie1918

hickboo1919

air punch1940

air strike1942

trade1942

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 9/1 In 1835 the French Academy sent Antoine on a scientific mission to Brazil.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 820/1 General O. M. Mitchel with a division was sent straight southwards..to cut the Memphis & Charleston line. The latter mission..failed, through want of support, to secure a foothold.

1929 E. W. Dichman This Aviation Business v. 107 Night, heavy long-distance, slow, and large all describe a certain type of airplane designed to accomplish a particular mission.

1939 Aircraft Yearbk. iii. 64 Many missions were flown, day and night, by participating bombardment and attack units.

1968 Mrs. L. B. Johnson Diary 1 July in White House Diary (1970) 694 Lynda heard from Chuck... He had returned from a mission and..had only time to read two or three letters, write her.., stuff a few more into his pocket, and leave on another mission!

1983 G. Harris Seventh Gate vii. 135 At dawn, ten of the escort left on a mission to scout the hills and organize resistance among the remaining population.

1990 Backpacker Aug. 5/1 When our scouting expedition completes its eight-month mission, the ADT will have networked over 20 existing trails.

b. mission accomplished: used to indicate that an objective has been achieved or a task completed.Originally used specifically with reference to the completion of an (esp. aerial) military operation.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > completing > completed or finished [phrase] > the task is finished

that job's jobbed1647

mission accomplished1915

1915 Frederick (Maryland) Post 7 Oct. 7/1 ‘Bon sang de bon sang!’ cried my lieutenant, shaking his fist at them, ‘so there they are!’ Then, he said to me: ‘Mission accomplished. A half turn, and quickly!’

1942 Boys' Life Mar. 41/2 Mission accomplished. Objective bombed. squadron rendezvoused at midnight.

1993 Bella 29 Sept. 46/1 So it's over. Mission accomplished: starting with the sending out of invitations..and ending with the bride and groom being waved off on their honeymoon.

2008 Independent 12 Feb. 25/6 Instead of maintaining sufficient numbers to keep the rebels as bay, the West declared ‘mission accomplished’ in East Timor and turned its attention elsewhere.

c. An expedition into space.

ΘΚΠ

society > travel > air or space travel > space flight > [noun] > a space shot or flight

shot1934

space shot1957

mission1962

1962 J. Glenn in J. Glenn et al. Into Orbit 43 The clock is pre-set on the ground according to a timing for retro-fire which we have computed before the mission.

1969 Times 23 May 1/2 Twice during the critical hours before the separation of the lunar module..from the command service module..the mission's future looked doubtful.

1994 Sunday Times 6 Mar. (Business section) iii. 12 (heading) The latest shuttle mission is a vital step towards building an international space station.

Compounds

C1. General attributive and objective.

mission-agent n.

ΚΠ

1871 Catholic World Dec. 325/1 I paid a visit to the Catholic mission agent.

1888 E. J. Mather Nor'ard of Dogger 98 The work accomplished by the mission-agents.

mission boat n.

ΚΠ

1850 G. Hines Voy. round World 135 We started immediately out with the mission boat.

1903 Month Aug. 150 Two small mission boats were built.

1995 Gazette (Montreal) 20 Oct. a7 The church named five large United Church mission boats after him.

mission chapel n.

ΚΠ

1842 Biblical Repertory Apr. 197 She at length abandoned her pagan worship, became a constant attendant at the mission chapel.

1886 W. Besant Children of Gibeon II. ii. x. 137 He had..a mission chapel to serve in some slum or other.

1916 C. A. Eastman From Deep Woods to Civilisation 109 Mr. Cook offered us the mission chapel, in which the Christmas tree still stood.

1989 Montana Winter 44/2 The Poncas settled on their 96,000-acre reservation..and attended church in the Episcopal mission chapel.

mission church n.

ΚΠ

1792 in Missionary Mag. (1797) 2 217 He preaches twice every Lord's Day, in the Mission church, in Calcutta.

1890 W. D. Howells Shadow of Dream ii. ii Nevil's given up his parish there, and gone..to Kansas, where he has charge of a sort of mission church.

1948 B. G. M. Sundkler Bantu Prophets S. Afr. 53 As Ethiopians I classify such independent Bantu Churches as have..seceded from White Mission Churches chiefly on racial grounds [etc.]

1992 R. Rodriguez Days of Obligation v. 125 A secular altar guild that will not distinguish..between a log cabin and a mission church, preserves only strangeness.

mission college n.

ΚΠ

1830 A. Heber Life R. Heber II. xxiii. 170 He..strongly pressed on them the necessity of establishing a mission college near Calcutta.

1914 W. G. Lawrence in Home Lett. T.E. Lawrence (1954) 546 Relations between English and Hindu professors are bad, and there is a distinct colour bar except in the Mission colleges.

mission farm n.

ΚΠ

1843 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. Apr. 345/2 They are principally engaged in the cultivation of the mission farms.

1891 Overland Monthly July 69 Another fine building..is a threestoried flour mill, entirely built of granite, in which the best machinery..grinds the wheat grown on the mission farm.

mission field n.

ΚΠ

1843 Ladies' Repository Jan. 9/1 The romantic notions which some entertain of a mission field, may become chastened and humbled by contact with the cold reality of facts.

1856 Mission Field Jan. 5 The ‘Mission Field’ of the Society may be said to extend over an area of 7,000,000 square miles.

1915 C. Kelway Story of Kikuyu 8 The mission field is, in fact, full of potential ‘Kikuyus’.

1994 N. K. Clifford Contrib. A. Macmillan to Canad. Hymnody in W. Klempa Burning Bush & Few Acres of Snow (1994) 159 He was commissioned by the student missionary society of his college to survey Presbyterian mission fields in Manitoba and the Northwest.

mission hall n.

ΚΠ

1859 ‘L.N.R.’ Missing Link i. 10 Many churches..maintain..their own missionaries, and have their own Home Mission halls.

1971 Bahamas 23 iii. 36/1 Rupert had found a broken down old mission hall in Hay Street.

1991 K. Dayus Where there's Life (ed. 2) 72 The..old tumbledown mission hall which the Sally Army used and which all the neighbours used when there was a wedding or some other big function to be held.

mission house n.

ΚΠ

1794 C. I. La Trobe tr. G. H. Loskiel Hist. Mission United Brethren ii. xii. 166 The mission-house on the Mahony..was..burnt.

1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville (1895) II. 102 In approaching this deserted mission house from the south, the traveller passes over the mountains of San Juan.

1923 O. Schreiner Thoughts on S. Afr. 16 The accommodation of an up-country mission house is limited.

1990 G. Appleton Unfinished 59 We were squatting cross-legged on the floor of the mission house at Nyaung-ngu.

mission-journey n.

ΚΠ

1884 Catholic World Nov. 206 Like the great founder of his order, he invariably made his mission journeys on foot.

1902 T. M. Lindsay Church & Ministry in Early Cent. iv. 163 The Mission-journey of Paul and Barnabas.

mission land n.

ΚΠ

1850 W. Colton Three Years in Calif. v. 87 All the mission lands, with their delicious orchards, waving grain, flocks and herds.

a1861 T. Winthrop John Brent (1862) i. 7 They had been speculating in beef, bread-stuffs, city lots,..mission lands.

1989 BNC Great hope for the future of the Church in the world is given to us, as we see the vigour and variety of its progress in the mission lands.

mission lecture room n. rare

ΚΠ

1851 R. Nesbit in Mem. (1858) xii. 305 After receiving ‘licence’, he preached in the Mission Lecture Room.

mission preacher n.

ΚΠ

1892 Catholic World Mar. 931 We expressed our welcome of it and our appreciation of Father Hunolt as a great mission preacher.

1898 Dublin Rev. Apr. 315 A very holy Franciscan mission-preacher.

1978 Amer. Hist. Rev. 83 1345/2 Mission preachers brought harmony to quarreling parishes.

mission-preaching n.

ΚΠ

1861 C. K. Whipple Relation Amer. Board Commissioners for Foreign Missions to Slavery 238 Church members and others, Indian, white, colored, and mixed, are attendants on the mission preaching.

1884 W. E. Addis & T. Arnold Catholic Dict. 585/2 In substance, mission-preaching has been employed in every age of the Church.

mission premises n.

ΚΠ

1843 Ladies' Repository June 190/1 We came in sight of the mission premises.

1900 Niger & Yoruba Notes Sept. 19/1 The Oni of Ile Ife..granted..a desirable plot of ground for the Mission premises.

1959 Amer. Jrnl. Internat. Law 53 261 If mission premises were established in towns other than that which is the seat of the government.

mission priest n.

ΚΠ

1868 Atlantic Monthly May 564/1 When it is over the mission priests retire to their own abode, to refresh themselves by rest, study, and contemplation.

1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVIII. 195/1 The Society of Mission Priests of St John the Evangelist, otherwise known as the Cowley Fathers, was founded..at Cowley St John.

1995 National Parks (Nexis) May 44 The mission priest would intervene on behalf of the Indians.

mission room n.

ΚΠ

1848 Ladies' Repository Oct. 298/1 It was held in the new Mission-Room of our great city.

1888 Q. Rev. 166 57 The multiplication of mission-rooms in squalid districts.

1976 Amer. Math. Monthly 83 402 Film showings were held in the Mission Room of the Convention Center.

mission school n.

ΚΠ

1818 N. Amer. Rev. Dec. 212 Memoirs of Henry Obookiah, a native of Owhyhee, and a member of the Foreign Mission School.]

1822 Rep. Indian Affairs (U.S.) ii. 171 There has been no particular information received from Elder Posey himself, superintendent of the mission schools at the Valley Towns.

1899 A. Werner Captain of Locusts 179 Nono was a former pupil of the Mission school, and a regular church goer.

1978 Speak 1 No. 5. 3 Relatively small groups of ‘mission-school’ Africans..worked in Johannesburg as clerks.., teachers, preachers, and tradesmen.

1991 Sci. Amer. Nov. 62/2 36 low-income Appalachian five- to 10-year-olds, who attended a mission school in the mountains of eastern Kentucky.

mission seminary n.

ΚΠ

1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 273/2 So successfully has the work of education been conducted in the mission seminary.

1891 Harper's Mag. Nov. 834/1 The excellent and energetic mission seminaries maintained by the English, the Americans, the Germans, and the French.

mission ship n.

ΚΠ

1822 J. Crawfurd Diary 9 May in Jrnl. Embassy Governor-Gen. India (1828) 146 I..sent the Mission-ship down the river.

1856 C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain ii. xvii. 529 They..hoped shortly to be called for by the mission-ship to return.

1905 W. T. Grenfell Harvest of Sea 143 So this was the mission-ship! We had heard some talk of one coming, but had thought it only one of the idle rumours of the coast.

1994 Pacific Affairs 67 479 Crook..was landed from the mission ship Duff at Tahuata in June 1797.

mission society n.

ΚΠ

1809 C. Simeon in W. Carus Life (1847) 272 The religious dissipation of Mission Societies.

1914 S. Lewis Our Mr. Wrenn i. 10 He had once gone into a mission society's free shipping-office on West Street.

1990 Christianity Today 14 May 18/3 The linking of First Baptist with mission societies and parachurch groups has also been beneficial.

mission station n.

ΚΠ

1828 I. McCoy in Kansas Hist. Q. (1936) 5 243 Here we intersected a waggon road leading from the settlements on Missouri River to Harmony Mission Station.

1860 W. Shaw Story of my Mission 471 He said that since he had been at the Mission Station, he had seen it was a very good thing to have abafundis or ‘teachers’ among them.

1876 W. Booth in H. Begbie Life W. Booth (1920) I. xxv. 417 What is a Mission Station?.. It is not a building..; it is not even a society, but a band of people united together to mission,..to christianize an entire town or neighbourhood.

1936 C. Chewings Back in Stone Age p. xi The road to Glen Helen from the mission station lay through the Finke Gorge.

1996 Independent 13 Jan. 3/5 [He] spent nine years as a pilot supplying mission stations in Irian Jaya.

mission teacher n.

ΚΠ

1888 Amer. Missionary Jan. 22 Those under mission teachers would be far less a number than 12,000.

1957 P. Worsley Trumpet shall Sound v. 96 The South Seas mission-teacher was strongly opposed by the cult-adherents.

1993 Dict. National Biogr.: Missing Persons 612/1 He..returned to southern Africa in 1898 as a mission teacher of the Primitive Methodist Church.

mission tower n.

ΚΠ

1868 B. Harte Angelus in Poems (1886) 7 The dome-shaped Mission towers.

1893 New Eng. Mag. Sept. 19/1 The beautiful Mission Tower and chime of bells, on the spot where good John Sargeant used to preach.

mission-vessel n. rare

ΚΠ

1888 E. J. Mather Nor'ard of Dogger 95 The fleets where mission-vessels are stationed.

mission-woman n. rare

ΚΠ

1861 (title) A few words to Bible mission-women.

mission work n.

ΚΠ

1848 New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) July 344/2 If what kind heaven has seemed to devolve upon us as our great mission-work and destiny.

1863 E. L. Price Jrnls. (1956) 134 The Mission work we do is but a wee bit when compared to all the drudgery.

1903 Truth (Sydney) 16 Aug. 1/7 Dean Pownall's daughter was farewelled at Wagga on Wednesday, prior to taking up mission work in China.

1992 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 30 Jan. 19/3 The Vincentians..are known more for mission work than for education.

C2. Instrumental.

mission-bred adj.

ΚΠ

1909 Times Lit. Suppl. 7 Jan. 3/2 He makes capital fun of the mission-bred Kaffir's misuse of book-learning.

mission-educated adj.

ΚΠ

1918 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 23 557 In China there is an overwhelming preponderance of Christian and mission-educated men in like positions.

1972 J. McClure Caterpillar Cop vii. 104 One of the old school and no mistake about it; mission-educated..a perfect Zulu gentleman.

mission-oriented adj.

ΚΠ

1960 Science 132 1815/3 (note) Basic research is an important element in the quality of any mission-oriented laboratory in the government.

1992 IEEE Spectrum Mar. 18/3 Clear responsibility for mission-oriented basic science should be given to agencies such as [the] Department of Energy.

mission-trained adj.

ΚΠ

1931 L. S. B. Leakey in Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 61 285 Many of the Kikuyu, both Mission-trained and those influenced by the Missions, are alive to the dangers of the old system.

1986 P. Maylam Hist. Afr. People 159 Mission-trained craftsmen, small-scale producers and property-holders..were becoming increasingly proletarianised.

C3.

mission bell n. (also mission bells) U.S. regional (western) any of several fritillaries of western North America; esp. Fritillaria lanceolata.

ΚΠ

1897 M. E. Parsons Wild Flowers Calif. 264 Mission-bells, Bronze-bells.

1942 C. J. Hylander World of Plant Life 552 Mission Bells..has nodding brownish-purple flowers, borne singly or in small clusters.

1994 Beautiful Brit. Columbia Fall 2/1 (caption) Chocolate lily, Kitlope Valley, Fritillaria lanceolata is also known as mission bell, checker lily, or skunk lily.

mission boy n. chiefly Australian and New Zealand a boy brought up or educated at a mission station, esp. one acting as a servant there while undergoing Christian instruction.

ΚΠ

1841 J. C. Bidwill Rambles in N.Z. (1952) 43 The mission-boys were very attentive to their prayers and hymns every evening and morning.

1908 D. Blackburn Leaven 33 He was a Pondo, an educated mission boy.

1958 D. S. Leslie Green Singers 203 ‘Me not desert blackfellow!’ shrilled Jack indignantly. ‘Me mission boy!’

1986 Financial Times 15 Mar. (Weekend) p. xiv/6 Mission boys, freed slaves and local carriers.

mission control n. the group or organization responsible for directing a spacecraft and its crew.

ΘΚΠ

society > travel > air or space travel > space flight > [noun] > programme of space exploration > organization controlling spacecraft and crew

mission control1964

1964 J. L. Nayler Dict. Astronautics 165 Mission Control Center. The Center..is due to be operational in 1964 for Gemini rendezvous flights.

1969 Times 16 July 5/8 Key abbreviations used by mission control and the astronauts will be [etc.].

1996 Washington Post 27 Nov. a4/1 Veteran spacewalkers in mission control then passed up word that it can take ‘a surprising amount of force’ to break the seal on the hatch.

mission creep n. originally U.S. Military slang a gradual shift in political or strategic objectives during the course of a military campaign, frequently resulting in an unresolved conflict or open-ended commitment; also in extended use.

ΚΠ

1993 Associated Press Newswire (Nexis) 12 Feb. Operation Restore Hope, the U.S.-led military mission to halt clan warfare and get aid to the needy [in Somalia], has unofficially widened its role to include such tasks as rebuilding houses, digging wells and creating police forces. Officials call it ‘mission creep’.

1994 Atlanta Jrnl. & Constit. 4 Oct. a8 ‘There are a lot of parallels in our intentions in Haiti and Vietnam,’ said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). ‘We're going into a conflict with an ill-defined mission, there is mission creep in a much more compressed time frame, [etc.].’

1994 Guardian 28 Oct. 23 ‘When you tell one lie, and then you have to tell another, and then another..what's that called?’ ‘Mission creep.’

1998 DM News (Nexis) 16 Nov. 30 Database projects are notorious for ‘mission creep’. What starts as a manageable, focused development effort somehow evolves into a multimillion, multiyear systems project that tries to be everything to everybody.

1999 Nation 27 Sept. 31/3 Pérez de Cuéllar had decided to shift from a peacekeeping to a peacemaking role... Even in the UN, there was opposition to this mission creep.

mission-critical adj. designating equipment (now esp. a computer system or software application) the correct functioning of which is essential for the fulfilment of a particular task.

ΚΠ

1976 Aviation Week 5 Apr. 41/2 Hardening of mission-critical government-furnished avionics for the USAF/Rockwell International B-1 bomber is being negotiated by USAF and Boeing Aerospace Co.

1979 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 21 July 7/4 The RMS, a ‘mission-critical’ system, was financed by the National Research Council as Canada's contribution to NASA's Space Transportation System, commonly known as the Space Shuttle.

1994 Microsoft Developer Network News May 1/2 The ability to leverage reusable, mission-critical legacy code can also play a crucial role in meeting the competitive pressures that most industries today face.

mission family n. U.S. (now historical) a family or group of families doing missionary work together.

ΚΠ

1822 J. Moore Rep. Indian Affairs i. 78 Education families. I give this name to those bodies which have been commonly denominated Mission Families.

1875 H. B. Stowe We & our Neighbors 375 A few Christian people had bought a house in which they had established a mission family, with a room which they use for a chapel.

Mission grape n. a variety of black grape ( Vitis vinifera) introduced into Mexico and the south-western United States by Spanish missionaries, once extensively grown for winemaking.

ΚΠ

1863 J. S. Hittell Resources Calif. vii. 206 These defects will probably be remedied by the use of the foreign grapes, and their mixture with the native Mission grape.

1875 Atlantic Monthly June 691/1 Like everything acclimated in California, the Digger, the mustang, the mission grape, the club wheat.., the cattle are ‘runts’.

1916 Standard Cycl. Hort. IV. 2334/2 The Mission grape..has not been identified with any Old World variety and is probably a seedling.

1997 Wine Mar. (Calif. Suppl.) 30/1 The first Vitis vinifera brought into the state is thought to have been introduced from Spain and was known as the Mission grape, since 18th-century missionaries first planted it.

mission impossible n. [after the name of Mission: Impossible, a U.S. television series, first broadcast in 1966] a difficult or impossible assignment.

ΚΠ

1968 C. C. O'Brien in N.Y. Rev. Bks. 21 Nov. 8 (title) Mission impossible.

1975 Business Week (Nexis) 18 Aug. 18 Dr. C. P. Eziefe, a Harvard-educated economist who is chief planning officer in the Ministry of Economic Development & Reconstruction, admits that the port situation is a ‘mission impossible’.

1993 H. Stern Private Parts iii. 88 But when you're living in a tiny, cramped house and your parents' bedroom is a foot and half away, it becomes Mission Impossible to jerk off without your parents finding out.

mission Indian n. North American a North American Indian brought up under the guidance of missionaries; (U.S.) spec. a member of any of a number of North American Indian peoples of California, originally converted to Christianity by Spanish Franciscan missionaries.

ΚΠ

1853 B. I. Hayes Pioneer Notes (1929) 94 Mr. Wilson goes to the Legislature, now in session, to obtain their co-operation in his plans for the Old Mission Indians.

1889 W. H. Withrow Our own Country 253 He collected, at Montreal, a force of four hundred men, including mission Indians.

1992 Spy (N.Y.) Apr. 44/1 He has also favorably impressed Jow Benitez, the tribal chairman of the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians of Indio, California.

mission statement n. (a) Military a statement of the objective of a military operation or task; (b) Business a formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organization, or individual.

ΚΠ

1967 Management Sci. 13 b440 Particular stress is placed on the type of mission to be flown by an aircraft... Each respondent was given a mission statement.

1971 Jrnl. Higher Educ. 42 675 There is a high probability that such a set of goal statements would be no more meaningful than many ‘mission’ statements now found in college catalogs.

1986 F. G. Rodgers & R. L. Shook IBM Way ii. 34 I wanted to help create the positions to which I was assigned, and I wanted the same for people who were my responsibility. I wanted them to treat their mission statements as I did: as guidelines.

1997 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 16 Mar. a18/1 The ABC seeks to serve both the alcoholic beverage industry's interests and those of the public, according to its own mission statement.

mission stiff n. U.S. slang (now rare) (a) a missionary; (b) a person who frequents missions, esp. a tramp who pretends to be religious so as to obtain free food and lodging.

ΚΠ

1904 ‘No. 1500’ Life in Sing Sing 256/2 Mission stiff, missionary; a convert.

1910 New Eng. Mag. July 588 A convict who works the churches and is insincere in his profession of religion is called a ‘mission stiff’.

1948 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 676 At the bottom of the pile are the poor wretches..who..gravitate dismally toward the big cities, to become beggars and mission-stiffs.

1970 J. P. Spradley You owe yourself a Drunk 42 Joe over there is a mission stiff.

1982 D. A. Harper Good Company 17 The mission stiff, no longer able to make it on the outside, is least respected.

C4. attributive. North American. Frequently with capital initial. Resembling the plain style of the Spanish missions in the south-western United States. Frequently in mission furniture, mission oak, mission style.

ΘΚΠ

society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > [noun] > types of furniture generally

wainscot1589

oak1829

casework1855

Chippendalism1880

Queen Anne1883

Colonial Revival1889

mission furniture1900

Bombay furniture1910

Chinese Chippendale1922

Danish modern1948

patio furniture1969

Populuxe1986

1893 Overland Monthly May 461/1 The Agricultural and Horticultural Building, designed by Samuel Newsom in the old California Spanish Mission style.]

1900 Harper's Bazar 28 Apr. 388/1 An artistic small shop filled to overflowing with what the salesman called Mission furniture.

1906 Out West Feb. 95 In the south these are handsome buildings of Mission design, in harmony with the character and traditions of the country.

1909 P. A. Wells & J. Hooper Mod. Cabinet Work 257 In America there has been a similar movement, known as ‘The Mission Style’, which is more or less a revival of Gothic and Jacobean forms applied to modern work.

1913 H. A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 30 I sat a short hour in one of the black ‘mission’ rocking chairs on the screened veranda puzzling over a serious problem.

1914 S. Lewis Our Mr. Wrenn xiii. 168 It had red and green bracket lights, mission-style tables, and music played by a sparrow-like pianist.

1927 U. Sinclair Oil! 223 Inside was furniture of a style called ‘mission oak’.

1930 J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel i. 122 I've got several magnificent mission style bungalows.

1948 A. L. Kroeber Anthropol. (rev. ed.) xii. 484 The Mission style, which in essentials is nothing but Spanish Moorish architecture.

1967 Boston Sunday Herald 9 Apr. (Show Guide) 15/1 The turn-of-the-century Mission furniture,..coming into popularity with the recent art nouveau revival.

1973 Washington Post 13 Jan. f1/8 (advt.) Big mission oak library table.

1979 Tucson (Arizona) Citizen 3 Oct. 19 c/9 (advt.) Double red brick construction w/mission tile roof.

1989 C. R. Wilson & W. Ferris Encycl. Southern Culture 62/1 In the Southwest the mission style (characterized by semicircular arches, low-pitched tiled roofs, and stucco surfaces) and the pueblo style..evolved.

1991 Canad. House & Home Dec. 46 Excellent reproduction Mission oak furniture based on designs by Gustav Stickley.

1992 N.Y. Times 27 Dec. v. 13/4 The 1919 Federal building, a graceful open-air affair of loggias and porticoes that combines Neo-Classical and Spanish mission characteristics.

1995 Midwest Living Apr. 122 His Mission furniture was straight-lined, all its construction details apparent.

Derivatives

ˈmissionward adj. rare

ΚΠ

1925 T. Dreiser Amer. Trag. I. i. i. 8 The missionward march was taken up.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

单词	mission
释义	missionn. Brit. /ˈmɪʃn/, U.S. /ˈmɪʃ(ə)n/ Forms: 1500s missyon, 1500s– mission. Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French mission; Latin missiōn-, missiō. Etymology: < Middle French, French mission (c1350 in sense 1; 1636 in sense ‘action of entrusting a task to an ambassador’; 1656 in sense 8; late 17th cent. in senses 2b and 4a; earlier in Anglo-Norman and Old French in sense ‘expenses, outlay’ (12th cent.)) and its etymon classical Latin missiōn-, missiō sending, dismissal, sending of ambassadors (see sense 7a), in post-classical Latin also ‘sending of Christ into the world’ (4th cent.), ‘sending of the Holy Spirit into the world’ (4th or 5th cent. in Augustine) < miss- , past participial stem of mittere to send (further etymology uncertain) + -iō -ion suffix¹. Compare Old Occitan missio royal delegation (1307), Spanish misión (mid 13th cent. in sense ‘expenses, expenditure’), Italian missione (14th cent.). I. Christian Church. 1. In Trinitarian theology: the sending into the world of the Son or Spirit by the Father, or of the Spirit by the Son, esp. for the purpose of salvation. ΘΚΠ the world > the supernatural > deity > Christian God > the Trinity > [noun] > person of > sending of one by another missiona1513 a1513 J. Irland Meroure of Wyssdome (1990) III. 18 Eftir þar confirmacioun and the missioun of the haly spreit to þame þai preichit the euuangel and the law of ihesu w^t gret strenth and hardines. 1530 R. Whitford Werke for Housholders (new ed.) G.iii^v The missyon or sendynge of þ^e holy ghost. 1610 Bible (Douay) II. Joel ii. Comm. The mission of the Holie Ghost performed on Whitsunday. 1676 M. Hale Contempl. Moral & Divine i. 310 The miraculous Mission of his Holy Spirit visibly and audibly. 1745 D. De Coetlogon Universal Hist. Arts & Sci. II. 1180 The Mission whereby Christ came into the World in the human Flesh. 1752 J. Gill Doctr. Trinity (ed. 2) vii. 138 The greatness of God's love in the gift and mission of his Son. 1846 J. C. Hare (title) The Mission of the Comforter. 1897 Catholic Dict. (ed. 5) 904/1 It cannot..be said that all three Persons are sent, because mission consists in the procession of one Person from another. 1952 G. D. Smith Teaching of Catholic Church (ed. 2) iv. 139 In the Incarnation of the Son of God we have a visible mission in its greatest possible perfection, whilst visible missions of the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove and of parted tongues of fire are recorded in the New Testament. 1985 E. Hill Mystery of Trinity ix. 88 His [sc. Christ's] mission was accompanied by the mission of the Holy Spirit, and both missions had the effect of revealing the eternal processions of these persons from the Father. 1989 F. E. Crowe Appropriating Lonergan Idea 327 Let me spend a moment on the single point of the order of the divine missions, defending my reversal of the traditional order of Son and Spirit. 2. a. A body of priests, esp. Jesuits, trained in seminaries abroad and sent to the British Isles to spread the Catholic faith and minister to the Recusant population; the enterprise or purpose for which such a body is sent or established. Now historical. ΘΚΠ society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun] > among Jesuits mission1598 1598 in H. Foley Rec. Eng. Province Soc. Jesus (1878) III. 723 Ye continuallie confluence of the rares and bestes [sic] wittes of our nation to the Seminaires, and ther constance in following their missions. 1598 in H. Foley Rec. Eng. Province Soc. Jesus (1878) III. 724 Thes evident testimones of missions and remissions..sent continuallie to Fr. P. by expresse messingers. 1606 in H. Foley Rec. Eng. Province Soc. Jesus (1878) III. 268 Beinge sent in mission to the Colledge of Siville. 1629 J. Wadsworth Eng. Spanish Pilgrime iii. 29 His place..was Prefect of the English Mission. 1644 A. Corbington Let. 26 Oct. in H. Foley Rec. Eng. Province Soc. Jesus (1878) III. 66 My brother..was one of that mission for Valladolid, which was taken either by the Turks or other pirates. 1693 Publ. Catholic Rec. Soc. (1911) 9 107 Mr William Bernard of Doway, hath been on the mission about 11 or 12 yrs. 1784 J. Barnard Life R. Challoner vi. 88 He set out from Doway to come upon the London Mission. 1796 Bp. G. Hay in Ushaw Mag. Dec. (1913) 285 There is nothing in it that interferes with the Resolution of the English Mission in 1688. 1885 Dict. National Biogr. V. 422 On being converted to catholicism he..repaired to the English college of Douay,..was ordained priest, and sent back on the mission in 1581. 1954 Tablet 22 May 493/1 John Penketh, or Rivers, S.J.,..came on the English mission in 1706. 1989 J. Campbell-Kease Compan. Local Hist. Res. 355 The Jesuit mission to England began in 1580. b. A body of persons sent out by a religious organization to evangelize abroad; the enterprise or expedition on which they are sent (frequently in foreign missions: see foreign mission n. 1). ΘΚΠ society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun] > effort involved in preparation or equipment of mission1622 society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun] > one who conducts > collectively mission1622 missionary1719 1622 F. Bacon Advt. Holy Warre in Misc. Wks. (1629) 96 The Church..maketh her Missions, into the Extreme Parts, of the Nations, and Isles. 1648 T. Gage Eng.-Amer. 3 Missions..of Voluntiers, Fryers mendicants, Priests or Monkes, or else of forced Jesuites. 1660 F. Brooke tr. V. Le Blanc World Surveyed 42 S. Francis Xaverius..was called the Apostle of the Indies, his order continues their mission thither stil. 1660 J. Dryden Astræa Redux 11 Like Zealous Missions they did care pretend Of souls in shew, but made the Gold their end. 1723 R. Millar Hist. Propagation Christianity II. viii. 368 The Congregation has sent Missions thither. 1768 A. Maclaine tr. J. L. von Mosheim Eccl. Hist. (ed. 2) Cent. xvii. i. §18 The African missions were allotted to this austere Order by the court of Rome. 1796 Missionary Mag. 1 92 The funds for foreign Missions are not considerable. 1830 Encycl. Brit. II. 632/2 A mission consists in general of one or two friars or priests, who settle among the savages [etc.]. 1841 B. Shaw Memorials Southern Afr. (rev. ed.) 304 Thus lived and thus died Jan Kapitein, a converted Coranna, the fruit of missionary labour, and a crown of rejoicing to the friends of missions in the day of the Lord. 1864 Chambers's Encycl. VI. 488/2 The mission in the south of India soon received the support of the English Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 1909 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Avonlea xxviii. 336 I'm wholesomely ashamed to think that a new dress..should exhilarate me so, when a good conscience and an extra contribution to Foreign Missions couldn't do it. 1964 D. Hall Roof of Tiger Lilies 28 ‘St Peter's,’ Said my friend, ‘where Bishop Cedd made his mission To Saxons in six-hundred-fifty.’ 1985 D. B. Coplan In Township Tonight! ii. 46 Most of the European missions followed their rural converts to the Rand. 1992 New Republic 4 May 33/2 There are some powerful ironies in Habad's new messianic universalism, in its mission to the gentiles. 3. a. The action of sending men or women forth with authority to preach the faith and administer the sacraments; an instance of this. Also: the authority given by God or the Church to preach. ΘΚΠ society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun] mission1641 mission?1821 missionizing1858 missioning1886 missionarism1890 missionization1891 1641 J. Jackson True Evangelical Temper iii. 186 Christ..in the Mission first of his Twelve, and after of his Seventy. 1656 T. Blount Glossographia Mission (says a Roman Catholick Author) is a giving of Orders, Jurisdiction and power to preach that Doctrine, which is taught by the Catholick Church, and to administer the Sacraments. a1699 E. Stillingfleet 50 Serm. (1707) xlviii. 729 That Christ and his Apostles did work..Miracles..and this for a Confirmation of their Divine Mission. 1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) Jesus Christ gave his Disciples their Mission in these Words, Go, and teach all Nations, &c. The Romanists reproach the Protestants, that their ministers have no mission. 1737 R. Challoner Catholick Christian Instructed ii. 8 Men..who so far from having any Orders or Mission, had not so much as Baptism. 1788 J. Bradford (title) An address to the inhabitants of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, on the mission of the two ministers sent by the Countess of Huntingdon. 1845 K. H. Digby Mores Catholici i. ii. iii. 126/1 Admitting that he [sc. Novatian] might have had ordination, he could not have had mission. 1884 W. E. Addis & T. Arnold Catholic Dict. 584/2 Mission is inseparably connected with jurisdiction. 1894 J. T. Fowler in St. Adamnan Vita S. Columbae Introd. 28 To obtain consecration and mission from Pope Caelestine I. 1983 A. Richardson & J. Bowden New Dict. Christian Theol. 372/1 Theology of mission, reflection on the purpose and nature of Christian mission, became a recognized branch or dimension of Christian theology in the course of the modern missionary movement. 1990 Illustr. London News Summer No. 91/3 Topical, political play by David Hare, about four south-London clergymen struggling to make sense of their mission in the inner city. b. Congregation of the Priests of the Mission n. (and variants) a Roman Catholic religious order founded by St Vincent de Paul (1581–1660) in 1625, originally to evangelize the rural poor but subsequently assuming additional educational and other objectives. Now more usually known as Lazarists, Vincentians (see Lazarist n., Vincentian n.¹ and adj.¹). ΘΚΠ society > faith > church government > monasticism > religious order > other religions > Lazarist > [noun] Congregation of the Priests of the Mission1656 missionary1656 Lazarite1728 Lazarist1747 1656 T. Blount Glossographia at Missionaries Also, a particular institute in France, called the Fathers of the Mission; who go by pairs,..preach and catechize, and perform other pastoral Offices. 1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) Mission is also the Name of a Congregation of Priests, and Laymen, instituted by Vincent de Paul, and confirmed in 1626 by Pope Urban VIII. under the Title of Priests of the Congregation of the Mission. 1845 Encycl. Metrop. XIII. 488/1 The Priests of the Mission..acted as home-missionaries. 1886 (title) Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor. A historical study. By a Priest of the Congregation of the Mission. 1991 Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic Encycl. 959/2 In 1625 he established his Congregation of Priests of the Mission, whose purpose it was to evangelize the poor country people. 4. a. A permanent establishment of missionaries abroad; a missionary post or station; a mission house. ΘΚΠ society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun] > post or station mission1770 station1799 society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun] > post or station > in particular district mission1770 1770 Ann. Reg. 1769 189 An officer that has lived seven years in the missions of Paraguay. 1825 R. Southey Tale of Paraguay iii. xiv They..To the nearest mission sped and ask'd the Jesuit's aid. 1837 R. Giddy in B. Shaw Memorials Southern Afr. (1841) 227 I have now to take leave of this people, having received orders from the Committee to remove to the Bechuana Mission. 1843 F. Marryat Narr. Trav. M. Violet II. ii. 38 The mission of Conception..is a very large stone building. 1857 R. Gray Jrnl. of Visitation to Diocese of Grahamstown 44 Not liking the atmosphere of the great hut, in which there was a charcoal fire,..I told Sandilli I must return to the Mission. 1880 C. R. Markham Peruvian Bark 65 Dr. Weddell descended the river Tipuani to Guanay, a mission of Lecos Indians. 1922 E. P. Johnson Legends of Vancouver 35 I saw her graceful, high-bowed canoe heading for the beach that is the favourite landing-place of the ‘tillicums’ from the Mission. 1936 S. & E. Afr. Year Bk. & Guide 527 Between Kakamas and Springbok, in the heart of Bushmanland, lies the notable French R. C. Mission of Pella. 1958 R. K. Narayan Guide v. 68 ‘How has he come to be a Christian?’ ‘There was a mission somewhere here.’ 1986 R. B. Morrison & C. R. Wilson Native Peoples x. 230 Socially, many contemporary local Algonquian communities trace roots back to nuclei of settlement around trading posts and missions. b. An establishment for missionary, evangelical, or humanitarian work at home; spec. a Roman Catholic institution in a predominantly non-Catholic country. ΚΠ 1812 C. Butler in Butler's Lives Saints (new ed.) I. 12 The vicar-apostolic of the middle district..appointed him to a mission in Staffordshire. 1845 Catholic Directory 27 Hackney... This interesting Mission was established in July, 1843. 1884 W. E. Addis & T. Arnold Catholic Dict. 585/2 In countries where the majority of the population is non-Catholic..the priests having charge of souls are not inducted into parishes, but stationed on missions. 1903 C. E. Osborne Life Fr. Dolling v It was resolved that Magdalen College should adopt S. Martin's Maidman Street, as its mission. 1925 W. J. Bryan Mem. 456 One night..we went to a mission along the water front in New York City. 1993 Dict. National Biogr.: Missing Persons 229/2 In 1848 he began his life's work—the mission in Burntisland, Fife. There he opened a day-school in 1849. c. With distinguishing word, esp. in home mission n. at home n.¹ and adj. Compounds 2. See also city mission n. at city n. Compounds 2. ΘΚΠ society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > [noun] mission1641 mission?1821 missionizing1858 missioning1886 missionarism1890 missionization1891 ?1821 (title) Christian patriotism and Home Missions inseparable. 1836 Home Missionary Mag. 37/1 Endeavour to engage Ministers..to promote the great cause of Home Missions. 1844 R. Wardlaw Lect. Prov. (1869) II. 16 Town missions and country missions. 1861 E. L. Cutts (title) Home Missions and Church Extension. 1909 N.Y. Observer 2 Sept. 316/1 The Home Mission Committee of Buffalo Presbytery has set itself earnestly to the task of bringing its dependent churches to self-support. 1932 Extension Mag. Feb. 2 (heading) Extension Magazine The Official Organ of the Home Missions. 1986 Shetland Times 7 Nov. 4/3 They were taken to the fishermen's mission where Skipper Fletcher and his men spent the night before flying home yesterday. 5. An intensive course of preaching, services, and other religious activities organized to stimulate interest in the Christian faith, or in the work of a parish or particular church. ΘΚΠ society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > revival > [noun] > series of services, etc., to bring about mission1772 revival1799 1772 T. Nugent tr. J. F. de Isla Hist. Friar Gerund I. 287 (note) In the time of Lent many preachers go about from town to town, inveighing vehemently against sin, and strenuously exhorting to repentance, which is called going upon a Mission. 1826 H. D. Best Four Years France xiv. 301 In the second year of my sojourn, a mission was preached at Avignon. 1862 H. Furniss Confession §xv. 16 One night during the Mission he went into the church. He stood near the platform where the missioner was preaching. 1906 Church Times 26 Oct. 513 The first service of the Ruridecanal Hampstead Mission. 1991 O. Chadwick Michael Ramsey 2 In February 1926 the religious groups in the university agreed..upon the common organization of a mission to the university. †II. gen. 6. The action or an act or instance of sending or being sent. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > movement > transference > sending > [noun] emission1607 mission1609 sending1627 1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida iii. iii. 183 Whose glorious deeds..Made emulous missions mongst the gods them selues, And draue great Mars to faction. View more context for this quotation 1647 T. Matthew Missive of Consol. Pref. sig. A 2 This Mission of my thoughts into my country. 1658 F. Osborne Advice to Son in Wks. (1673) 225 Nor can this Mission to the Tower be looked upon for less than the best Fortune so high a Malefactor could be capable of. 1662 W. Petty Treat. Taxes 13 The numerous missions of Cattle and Sheep out of Ireland. 1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 87 The Extent of the Presidency is larger in its Missions than Residency. 1819 Examiner 31 Jan. 68/1 A letter..of the receipt, and even mission, of which there is not an atom of proof. III. Politics and Diplomatic. 7. a. The sending of representatives to a foreign country, esp. for the purpose of conducting negotiations, establishing political or commercial relations, watching over certain interests, etc.; a body of persons thus sent. ΘΚΠ society > authority > rule or government > politics > international politics or relations > diplomacy > [noun] > ambassador or envoy > body of ambassade1425 embassade?a1439 legacyc1480 legation1509 ambassage1540 embassage1601 embassy1611 ambassy1620 mission1626 1626 F. Bacon New Atlantis 19 in Sylua Syluarum That in either of these Shipps, ther should be a Mission of three of the Fellowes, or Brethren of Salomon's House; whose Errand was onely to giue vs Knowledge of the Affaires..of those Countries, to which they were designed. 1662 W. Petty Treat. Taxes 27 The envy which precedent missions of English [in Ireland] have against the subsequent. 1770 T. Percy tr. P. H. Mallet Northern Antiq. I. p. xlviii He sent the celebrated Mission of the Literati to explore the interior parts of Arabia. 1791 G. Washington in Amer. State Papers (1833) I. 127 An additional motive for this confidential mission arose in the same quarter. 1813 Edinb. Rev. Feb. 155 The French mission was still suffered to remain in Stockholm, until the Moniteur mentioned the behaviour of Gustavus disrespectfully. a1827 T. H. Horne in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) XVIII. 26/1 (1) Diplomatic Missions..the object of which is, affairs of State or Politics..; (2) Missions of Ceremony or Etiquette, the object of which is, notifications or compliments of congratulation or condolence..; (3) Fixed Missions, in which the Diplomatic Agent..is charged with watching over the various objects above mentioned. 1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 95/1 In December 1903 an American mission visited Adis Ababa, and a commercial treaty between the United States and Abyssinia was signed. 1940 J. F. Kennedy Why Eng. Slept viii. 191 Britain had sent a small mission to Canada and to the United States to investigate the possibilities of obtaining aircraft there. 1977 Daily Tel. 1 Sept. 2/6 A joint mission from Northern Ireland to America to promote industrial investment, would be acceptable to official Unionists and the Social Democratic and Labour party. b. Originally U.S. A permanent diplomatic establishment, embassy, or legation. ΘΚΠ society > authority > rule or government > politics > international politics or relations > diplomacy > [noun] > diplomat > collectively > accredited to specific court or capital corps diplomatique1796 foreign service1799 mission1805 foreign mission1819 1805 Amer. State Papers (1832) II. 669 As nothing was said in my communication respecting the ordinary mission, it remains of course in force. 1833 Reg. Deb. Congress U.S. App. 31 Jan. 87/1 The important papers of his mission must be kept in a tavern. 1890 Cent. Dict. (at cited word) The members of the British mission at Washington. 1923 G. Buchanan My Mission to Russia I. vii. 77 The Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs had omitted to invite the Bulgarian agent to a banquet, given [by] the heads of missions in honour of the Sultan's birthday. 1993 N.Y. Times 7 Nov. ii. 33/2 A cache of recorded folk songs..had been donated by Major General Edward Lansdale, an Air Force officer who ran the Senior Liaison Office of the United States Mission in Saigon. IV. A task, an undertaking. 8. The commission, business, or function with which a messenger, envoy, or agent is entrusted; esp. the task entrusted to a political or diplomatic mission. ΘΚΠ society > authority > rule or government > politics > international politics or relations > diplomacy > [noun] > the sending of ambassadors or envoys > mission or function of ambassador ambassade1395 embassadryc1405 ambassadryc1410 embassadec1453 bassade1458 basetry1462 ambassy1560 embassy1563 mission1671 embassage1677 1671 J. Milton Paradise Regain'd ii. 114 How to accomplish best His end of being on Earth, and mission high. View more context for this quotation 1704 R. Nelson Compan. Festivals & Fasts i. iv. 48 None of the rest of the Apostles stand in competition with St. Paul for this Mission [sc. of converting Britain]. 1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall V. xlix. 102 The formidable name and mission of the Dragon, his visitor-general. 1820 W. Scott Abbot I. ii. 39 ‘No,’ answered the old woman, sternly; ‘to part is enough. I go forth on my own mission.’ 1836 C. Thirlwall Hist. Greece III. 365 Phæax possessed talents well suited for negotiation,..but..he met with such opposition as to deter him from proceeding further on the business of his mission. 1863 Ld. Russell in R. F. Burton Mission to Gelele (1864) p. x You were informed..that you had been selected by her Majesty's Government to proceed on a Mission to the King of Dahomey, to confirm the friendly sentiments expressed by Commodore Wilmot to the King. 1873 E. E. Hale In his Name vi. 108 It seemed to him..that there was not one..who seemed to take the least interest in his mission. 1919 J. Conrad Arrow of Gold i. iii The friar met me in the corridor and informed me that I would be ordered to escort that most loyal and noble lady back to the French frontier as a personal mission of the highest honour. 1951 S. Themerson Wooff Wooff vii. 40 I'm just going off on my job, and that's a very important mission. The future of the world may depend on it. 1985 E. Kuzwayo Call me Woman ii. xiv. 212 The ‘leader’ of this trio started telling me about their mission, namely, that his department was thinking of releasing me. 9. a. A task which a person is designed or destined to do; a duty or function imposed on or assumed by a person; a person's vocation or work in life, a strongly felt aim or ambition in life. Also in extended use. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > [noun] > regular occupation, trade, or profession > vocation clepingc1384 vocationa1492 call1536 calling1704 mission1819 the world > action or operation > undertaking > [noun] > an undertaking > thing(s) to be done > a (difficult) task > which one is designed to do mission1819 1819 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto II clxxxii. 210 Who..Thought daily service was her only mission. 1839 T. Carlyle Chartism iii. 20 Work is the mission of man in this Earth. 1843 W. H. Prescott Hist. Conquest Mexico II. iv. iii. 163 They..held it to be their ‘mission’ (to borrow the cant phrase of our own day) to conquer and to convert. 1848 Ld. Brougham Of Revol. in Wks. (1857) VIII. 322 She [sc. France]..has a mission, what we would term a vocation, to hasten and help the Discontented. 1850 W. Wordsworth Prelude i. 3 Whate'er its mission, the soft breeze can come To none more grateful than to me. 1881 W. S. Gilbert Patience ii. 34 I am a man with a mission. 1916 G. Saintsbury Peace of Augustans i. 8 This was its mission—to get English prose into something like the order which..English verse had actually reached. 1957 L. Durrell Justine ii. 113 The mission of the Cabal, if it has one, is so to ennoble function that even eating and excreting will be raised to the rank of arts. 1990 Voice of Arab World 25 Dec. 24 Saddam..can be patently sincere. He is an empire builder with a mission. b. on a mission: determined to achieve a goal, complete a task, fulfil an obligation, etc. ΚΠ 1988 S. Lee Jrnl. 3 June in Do Right Thing (1989) 88 As of this weekend..I'm on a mission. I'm gonna concentrate 100 percent on the script. 1991 Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee) 24 Nov. d1/4 We had to prove..to everyone around the country that we are on a mission. 1997 ‘Q’ Deadmeat 169 Bones was a man on a mission, he was at the front end of it all. 2000 Herald (Glasgow) (Electronic ed.) 12 Sept. Safin arrived at the Open on a mission. 10. a. A military operation, esp. one carried out by aircraft, in the course of a conflict. Also: an expedition undertaken for scientific or exploratory purposes. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military operations > [noun] service?1560 operation1749 show1892 mission1910 op1916 party1918 society > armed hostility > hostilities in the air > [noun] > air operation mission1910 air raid1914 sortie1918 hickboo1919 air punch1940 air strike1942 trade1942 1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 9/1 In 1835 the French Academy sent Antoine on a scientific mission to Brazil. 1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 820/1 General O. M. Mitchel with a division was sent straight southwards..to cut the Memphis & Charleston line. The latter mission..failed, through want of support, to secure a foothold. 1929 E. W. Dichman This Aviation Business v. 107 Night, heavy long-distance, slow, and large all describe a certain type of airplane designed to accomplish a particular mission. 1939 Aircraft Yearbk. iii. 64 Many missions were flown, day and night, by participating bombardment and attack units. 1968 Mrs. L. B. Johnson Diary 1 July in White House Diary (1970) 694 Lynda heard from Chuck... He had returned from a mission and..had only time to read two or three letters, write her.., stuff a few more into his pocket, and leave on another mission! 1983 G. Harris Seventh Gate vii. 135 At dawn, ten of the escort left on a mission to scout the hills and organize resistance among the remaining population. 1990 Backpacker Aug. 5/1 When our scouting expedition completes its eight-month mission, the ADT will have networked over 20 existing trails. b. mission accomplished: used to indicate that an objective has been achieved or a task completed.Originally used specifically with reference to the completion of an (esp. aerial) military operation. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > completing > completed or finished [phrase] > the task is finished that job's jobbed1647 mission accomplished1915 1915 Frederick (Maryland) Post 7 Oct. 7/1 ‘Bon sang de bon sang!’ cried my lieutenant, shaking his fist at them, ‘so there they are!’ Then, he said to me: ‘Mission accomplished. A half turn, and quickly!’ 1942 Boys' Life Mar. 41/2 Mission accomplished. Objective bombed. squadron rendezvoused at midnight. 1993 Bella 29 Sept. 46/1 So it's over. Mission accomplished: starting with the sending out of invitations..and ending with the bride and groom being waved off on their honeymoon. 2008 Independent 12 Feb. 25/6 Instead of maintaining sufficient numbers to keep the rebels as bay, the West declared ‘mission accomplished’ in East Timor and turned its attention elsewhere. c. An expedition into space. ΘΚΠ society > travel > air or space travel > space flight > [noun] > a space shot or flight shot1934 space shot1957 mission1962 1962 J. Glenn in J. Glenn et al. Into Orbit 43 The clock is pre-set on the ground according to a timing for retro-fire which we have computed before the mission. 1969 Times 23 May 1/2 Twice during the critical hours before the separation of the lunar module..from the command service module..the mission's future looked doubtful. 1994 Sunday Times 6 Mar. (Business section) iii. 12 (heading) The latest shuttle mission is a vital step towards building an international space station. Compounds C1. General attributive and objective. mission-agent n. ΚΠ 1871 Catholic World Dec. 325/1 I paid a visit to the Catholic mission agent. 1888 E. J. Mather Nor'ard of Dogger 98 The work accomplished by the mission-agents. mission boat n. ΚΠ 1850 G. Hines Voy. round World 135 We started immediately out with the mission boat. 1903 Month Aug. 150 Two small mission boats were built. 1995 Gazette (Montreal) 20 Oct. a7 The church named five large United Church mission boats after him. mission chapel n. ΚΠ 1842 Biblical Repertory Apr. 197 She at length abandoned her pagan worship, became a constant attendant at the mission chapel. 1886 W. Besant Children of Gibeon II. ii. x. 137 He had..a mission chapel to serve in some slum or other. 1916 C. A. Eastman From Deep Woods to Civilisation 109 Mr. Cook offered us the mission chapel, in which the Christmas tree still stood. 1989 Montana Winter 44/2 The Poncas settled on their 96,000-acre reservation..and attended church in the Episcopal mission chapel. mission church n. ΚΠ 1792 in Missionary Mag. (1797) 2 217 He preaches twice every Lord's Day, in the Mission church, in Calcutta. 1890 W. D. Howells Shadow of Dream ii. ii Nevil's given up his parish there, and gone..to Kansas, where he has charge of a sort of mission church. 1948 B. G. M. Sundkler Bantu Prophets S. Afr. 53 As Ethiopians I classify such independent Bantu Churches as have..seceded from White Mission Churches chiefly on racial grounds [etc.] 1992 R. Rodriguez Days of Obligation v. 125 A secular altar guild that will not distinguish..between a log cabin and a mission church, preserves only strangeness. mission college n. ΚΠ 1830 A. Heber Life R. Heber II. xxiii. 170 He..strongly pressed on them the necessity of establishing a mission college near Calcutta. 1914 W. G. Lawrence in Home Lett. T.E. Lawrence (1954) 546 Relations between English and Hindu professors are bad, and there is a distinct colour bar except in the Mission colleges. mission farm n. ΚΠ 1843 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. Apr. 345/2 They are principally engaged in the cultivation of the mission farms. 1891 Overland Monthly July 69 Another fine building..is a threestoried flour mill, entirely built of granite, in which the best machinery..grinds the wheat grown on the mission farm. mission field n. ΚΠ 1843 Ladies' Repository Jan. 9/1 The romantic notions which some entertain of a mission field, may become chastened and humbled by contact with the cold reality of facts. 1856 Mission Field Jan. 5 The ‘Mission Field’ of the Society may be said to extend over an area of 7,000,000 square miles. 1915 C. Kelway Story of Kikuyu 8 The mission field is, in fact, full of potential ‘Kikuyus’. 1994 N. K. Clifford Contrib. A. Macmillan to Canad. Hymnody in W. Klempa Burning Bush & Few Acres of Snow (1994) 159 He was commissioned by the student missionary society of his college to survey Presbyterian mission fields in Manitoba and the Northwest. mission hall n. ΚΠ 1859 ‘L.N.R.’ Missing Link i. 10 Many churches..maintain..their own missionaries, and have their own Home Mission halls. 1971 Bahamas 23 iii. 36/1 Rupert had found a broken down old mission hall in Hay Street. 1991 K. Dayus Where there's Life (ed. 2) 72 The..old tumbledown mission hall which the Sally Army used and which all the neighbours used when there was a wedding or some other big function to be held. mission house n. ΚΠ 1794 C. I. La Trobe tr. G. H. Loskiel Hist. Mission United Brethren ii. xii. 166 The mission-house on the Mahony..was..burnt. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville (1895) II. 102 In approaching this deserted mission house from the south, the traveller passes over the mountains of San Juan. 1923 O. Schreiner Thoughts on S. Afr. 16 The accommodation of an up-country mission house is limited. 1990 G. Appleton Unfinished 59 We were squatting cross-legged on the floor of the mission house at Nyaung-ngu. mission-journey n. ΚΠ 1884 Catholic World Nov. 206 Like the great founder of his order, he invariably made his mission journeys on foot. 1902 T. M. Lindsay Church & Ministry in Early Cent. iv. 163 The Mission-journey of Paul and Barnabas. mission land n. ΚΠ 1850 W. Colton Three Years in Calif. v. 87 All the mission lands, with their delicious orchards, waving grain, flocks and herds. a1861 T. Winthrop John Brent (1862) i. 7 They had been speculating in beef, bread-stuffs, city lots,..mission lands. 1989 BNC Great hope for the future of the Church in the world is given to us, as we see the vigour and variety of its progress in the mission lands. mission lecture room n. rare ΚΠ 1851 R. Nesbit in Mem. (1858) xii. 305 After receiving ‘licence’, he preached in the Mission Lecture Room. mission preacher n. ΚΠ 1892 Catholic World Mar. 931 We expressed our welcome of it and our appreciation of Father Hunolt as a great mission preacher. 1898 Dublin Rev. Apr. 315 A very holy Franciscan mission-preacher. 1978 Amer. Hist. Rev. 83 1345/2 Mission preachers brought harmony to quarreling parishes. mission-preaching n. ΚΠ 1861 C. K. Whipple Relation Amer. Board Commissioners for Foreign Missions to Slavery 238 Church members and others, Indian, white, colored, and mixed, are attendants on the mission preaching. 1884 W. E. Addis & T. Arnold Catholic Dict. 585/2 In substance, mission-preaching has been employed in every age of the Church. mission premises n. ΚΠ 1843 Ladies' Repository June 190/1 We came in sight of the mission premises. 1900 Niger & Yoruba Notes Sept. 19/1 The Oni of Ile Ife..granted..a desirable plot of ground for the Mission premises. 1959 Amer. Jrnl. Internat. Law 53 261 If mission premises were established in towns other than that which is the seat of the government. mission priest n. ΚΠ 1868 Atlantic Monthly May 564/1 When it is over the mission priests retire to their own abode, to refresh themselves by rest, study, and contemplation. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVIII. 195/1 The Society of Mission Priests of St John the Evangelist, otherwise known as the Cowley Fathers, was founded..at Cowley St John. 1995 National Parks (Nexis) May 44 The mission priest would intervene on behalf of the Indians. mission room n. ΚΠ 1848 Ladies' Repository Oct. 298/1 It was held in the new Mission-Room of our great city. 1888 Q. Rev. 166 57 The multiplication of mission-rooms in squalid districts. 1976 Amer. Math. Monthly 83 402 Film showings were held in the Mission Room of the Convention Center. mission school n. ΚΠ 1818 N. Amer. Rev. Dec. 212 Memoirs of Henry Obookiah, a native of Owhyhee, and a member of the Foreign Mission School.] 1822 Rep. Indian Affairs (U.S.) ii. 171 There has been no particular information received from Elder Posey himself, superintendent of the mission schools at the Valley Towns. 1899 A. Werner Captain of Locusts 179 Nono was a former pupil of the Mission school, and a regular church goer. 1978 Speak 1 No. 5. 3 Relatively small groups of ‘mission-school’ Africans..worked in Johannesburg as clerks.., teachers, preachers, and tradesmen. 1991 Sci. Amer. Nov. 62/2 36 low-income Appalachian five- to 10-year-olds, who attended a mission school in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. mission seminary n. ΚΠ 1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 273/2 So successfully has the work of education been conducted in the mission seminary. 1891 Harper's Mag. Nov. 834/1 The excellent and energetic mission seminaries maintained by the English, the Americans, the Germans, and the French. mission ship n. ΚΠ 1822 J. Crawfurd Diary 9 May in Jrnl. Embassy Governor-Gen. India (1828) 146 I..sent the Mission-ship down the river. 1856 C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain ii. xvii. 529 They..hoped shortly to be called for by the mission-ship to return. 1905 W. T. Grenfell Harvest of Sea 143 So this was the mission-ship! We had heard some talk of one coming, but had thought it only one of the idle rumours of the coast. 1994 Pacific Affairs 67 479 Crook..was landed from the mission ship Duff at Tahuata in June 1797. mission society n. ΚΠ 1809 C. Simeon in W. Carus Life (1847) 272 The religious dissipation of Mission Societies. 1914 S. Lewis Our Mr. Wrenn i. 10 He had once gone into a mission society's free shipping-office on West Street. 1990 Christianity Today 14 May 18/3 The linking of First Baptist with mission societies and parachurch groups has also been beneficial. mission station n. ΚΠ 1828 I. McCoy in Kansas Hist. Q. (1936) 5 243 Here we intersected a waggon road leading from the settlements on Missouri River to Harmony Mission Station. 1860 W. Shaw Story of my Mission 471 He said that since he had been at the Mission Station, he had seen it was a very good thing to have abafundis or ‘teachers’ among them. 1876 W. Booth in H. Begbie Life W. Booth (1920) I. xxv. 417 What is a Mission Station?.. It is not a building..; it is not even a society, but a band of people united together to mission,..to christianize an entire town or neighbourhood. 1936 C. Chewings Back in Stone Age p. xi The road to Glen Helen from the mission station lay through the Finke Gorge. 1996 Independent 13 Jan. 3/5 [He] spent nine years as a pilot supplying mission stations in Irian Jaya. mission teacher n. ΚΠ 1888 Amer. Missionary Jan. 22 Those under mission teachers would be far less a number than 12,000. 1957 P. Worsley Trumpet shall Sound v. 96 The South Seas mission-teacher was strongly opposed by the cult-adherents. 1993 Dict. National Biogr.: Missing Persons 612/1 He..returned to southern Africa in 1898 as a mission teacher of the Primitive Methodist Church. mission tower n. ΚΠ 1868 B. Harte Angelus in Poems (1886) 7 The dome-shaped Mission towers. 1893 New Eng. Mag. Sept. 19/1 The beautiful Mission Tower and chime of bells, on the spot where good John Sargeant used to preach. mission-vessel n. rare ΚΠ 1888 E. J. Mather Nor'ard of Dogger 95 The fleets where mission-vessels are stationed. mission-woman n. rare ΚΠ 1861 (title) A few words to Bible mission-women. mission work n. ΚΠ 1848 New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) July 344/2 If what kind heaven has seemed to devolve upon us as our great mission-work and destiny. 1863 E. L. Price Jrnls. (1956) 134 The Mission work we do is but a wee bit when compared to all the drudgery. 1903 Truth (Sydney) 16 Aug. 1/7 Dean Pownall's daughter was farewelled at Wagga on Wednesday, prior to taking up mission work in China. 1992 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 30 Jan. 19/3 The Vincentians..are known more for mission work than for education. C2. Instrumental. mission-bred adj. ΚΠ 1909 Times Lit. Suppl. 7 Jan. 3/2 He makes capital fun of the mission-bred Kaffir's misuse of book-learning. mission-educated adj. ΚΠ 1918 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 23 557 In China there is an overwhelming preponderance of Christian and mission-educated men in like positions. 1972 J. McClure Caterpillar Cop vii. 104 One of the old school and no mistake about it; mission-educated..a perfect Zulu gentleman. mission-oriented adj. ΚΠ 1960 Science 132 1815/3 (note) Basic research is an important element in the quality of any mission-oriented laboratory in the government. 1992 IEEE Spectrum Mar. 18/3 Clear responsibility for mission-oriented basic science should be given to agencies such as [the] Department of Energy. mission-trained adj. ΚΠ 1931 L. S. B. Leakey in Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 61 285 Many of the Kikuyu, both Mission-trained and those influenced by the Missions, are alive to the dangers of the old system. 1986 P. Maylam Hist. Afr. People 159 Mission-trained craftsmen, small-scale producers and property-holders..were becoming increasingly proletarianised. C3. mission bell n. (also mission bells) U.S. regional (western) any of several fritillaries of western North America; esp. Fritillaria lanceolata. ΚΠ 1897 M. E. Parsons Wild Flowers Calif. 264 Mission-bells, Bronze-bells. 1942 C. J. Hylander World of Plant Life 552 Mission Bells..has nodding brownish-purple flowers, borne singly or in small clusters. 1994 Beautiful Brit. Columbia Fall 2/1 (caption) Chocolate lily, Kitlope Valley, Fritillaria lanceolata is also known as mission bell, checker lily, or skunk lily. mission boy n. chiefly Australian and New Zealand a boy brought up or educated at a mission station, esp. one acting as a servant there while undergoing Christian instruction. ΚΠ 1841 J. C. Bidwill Rambles in N.Z. (1952) 43 The mission-boys were very attentive to their prayers and hymns every evening and morning. 1908 D. Blackburn Leaven 33 He was a Pondo, an educated mission boy. 1958 D. S. Leslie Green Singers 203 ‘Me not desert blackfellow!’ shrilled Jack indignantly. ‘Me mission boy!’ 1986 Financial Times 15 Mar. (Weekend) p. xiv/6 Mission boys, freed slaves and local carriers. mission control n. the group or organization responsible for directing a spacecraft and its crew. ΘΚΠ society > travel > air or space travel > space flight > [noun] > programme of space exploration > organization controlling spacecraft and crew mission control1964 1964 J. L. Nayler Dict. Astronautics 165 Mission Control Center. The Center..is due to be operational in 1964 for Gemini rendezvous flights. 1969 Times 16 July 5/8 Key abbreviations used by mission control and the astronauts will be [etc.]. 1996 Washington Post 27 Nov. a4/1 Veteran spacewalkers in mission control then passed up word that it can take ‘a surprising amount of force’ to break the seal on the hatch. mission creep n. originally U.S. Military slang a gradual shift in political or strategic objectives during the course of a military campaign, frequently resulting in an unresolved conflict or open-ended commitment; also in extended use. ΚΠ 1993 Associated Press Newswire (Nexis) 12 Feb. Operation Restore Hope, the U.S.-led military mission to halt clan warfare and get aid to the needy [in Somalia], has unofficially widened its role to include such tasks as rebuilding houses, digging wells and creating police forces. Officials call it ‘mission creep’. 1994 Atlanta Jrnl. & Constit. 4 Oct. a8 ‘There are a lot of parallels in our intentions in Haiti and Vietnam,’ said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). ‘We're going into a conflict with an ill-defined mission, there is mission creep in a much more compressed time frame, [etc.].’ 1994 Guardian 28 Oct. 23 ‘When you tell one lie, and then you have to tell another, and then another..what's that called?’ ‘Mission creep.’ 1998 DM News (Nexis) 16 Nov. 30 Database projects are notorious for ‘mission creep’. What starts as a manageable, focused development effort somehow evolves into a multimillion, multiyear systems project that tries to be everything to everybody. 1999 Nation 27 Sept. 31/3 Pérez de Cuéllar had decided to shift from a peacekeeping to a peacemaking role... Even in the UN, there was opposition to this mission creep. mission-critical adj. designating equipment (now esp. a computer system or software application) the correct functioning of which is essential for the fulfilment of a particular task. ΚΠ 1976 Aviation Week 5 Apr. 41/2 Hardening of mission-critical government-furnished avionics for the USAF/Rockwell International B-1 bomber is being negotiated by USAF and Boeing Aerospace Co. 1979 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 21 July 7/4 The RMS, a ‘mission-critical’ system, was financed by the National Research Council as Canada's contribution to NASA's Space Transportation System, commonly known as the Space Shuttle. 1994 Microsoft Developer Network News May 1/2 The ability to leverage reusable, mission-critical legacy code can also play a crucial role in meeting the competitive pressures that most industries today face. mission family n. U.S. (now historical) a family or group of families doing missionary work together. ΚΠ 1822 J. Moore Rep. Indian Affairs i. 78 Education families. I give this name to those bodies which have been commonly denominated Mission Families. 1875 H. B. Stowe We & our Neighbors 375 A few Christian people had bought a house in which they had established a mission family, with a room which they use for a chapel. Mission grape n. a variety of black grape ( Vitis vinifera) introduced into Mexico and the south-western United States by Spanish missionaries, once extensively grown for winemaking. ΚΠ 1863 J. S. Hittell Resources Calif. vii. 206 These defects will probably be remedied by the use of the foreign grapes, and their mixture with the native Mission grape. 1875 Atlantic Monthly June 691/1 Like everything acclimated in California, the Digger, the mustang, the mission grape, the club wheat.., the cattle are ‘runts’. 1916 Standard Cycl. Hort. IV. 2334/2 The Mission grape..has not been identified with any Old World variety and is probably a seedling. 1997 Wine Mar. (Calif. Suppl.) 30/1 The first Vitis vinifera brought into the state is thought to have been introduced from Spain and was known as the Mission grape, since 18th-century missionaries first planted it. mission impossible n. [after the name of Mission: Impossible, a U.S. television series, first broadcast in 1966] a difficult or impossible assignment. ΚΠ 1968 C. C. O'Brien in N.Y. Rev. Bks. 21 Nov. 8 (title) Mission impossible. 1975 Business Week (Nexis) 18 Aug. 18 Dr. C. P. Eziefe, a Harvard-educated economist who is chief planning officer in the Ministry of Economic Development & Reconstruction, admits that the port situation is a ‘mission impossible’. 1993 H. Stern Private Parts iii. 88 But when you're living in a tiny, cramped house and your parents' bedroom is a foot and half away, it becomes Mission Impossible to jerk off without your parents finding out. mission Indian n. North American a North American Indian brought up under the guidance of missionaries; (U.S.) spec. a member of any of a number of North American Indian peoples of California, originally converted to Christianity by Spanish Franciscan missionaries. ΚΠ 1853 B. I. Hayes Pioneer Notes (1929) 94 Mr. Wilson goes to the Legislature, now in session, to obtain their co-operation in his plans for the Old Mission Indians. 1889 W. H. Withrow Our own Country 253 He collected, at Montreal, a force of four hundred men, including mission Indians. 1992 Spy (N.Y.) Apr. 44/1 He has also favorably impressed Jow Benitez, the tribal chairman of the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians of Indio, California. mission statement n. (a) Military a statement of the objective of a military operation or task; (b) Business a formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organization, or individual. ΚΠ 1967 Management Sci. 13 b440 Particular stress is placed on the type of mission to be flown by an aircraft... Each respondent was given a mission statement. 1971 Jrnl. Higher Educ. 42 675 There is a high probability that such a set of goal statements would be no more meaningful than many ‘mission’ statements now found in college catalogs. 1986 F. G. Rodgers & R. L. Shook IBM Way ii. 34 I wanted to help create the positions to which I was assigned, and I wanted the same for people who were my responsibility. I wanted them to treat their mission statements as I did: as guidelines. 1997 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 16 Mar. a18/1 The ABC seeks to serve both the alcoholic beverage industry's interests and those of the public, according to its own mission statement. mission stiff n. U.S. slang (now rare) (a) a missionary; (b) a person who frequents missions, esp. a tramp who pretends to be religious so as to obtain free food and lodging. ΚΠ 1904 ‘No. 1500’ Life in Sing Sing 256/2 Mission stiff, missionary; a convert. 1910 New Eng. Mag. July 588 A convict who works the churches and is insincere in his profession of religion is called a ‘mission stiff’. 1948 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 676 At the bottom of the pile are the poor wretches..who..gravitate dismally toward the big cities, to become beggars and mission-stiffs. 1970 J. P. Spradley You owe yourself a Drunk 42 Joe over there is a mission stiff. 1982 D. A. Harper Good Company 17 The mission stiff, no longer able to make it on the outside, is least respected. C4. attributive. North American. Frequently with capital initial. Resembling the plain style of the Spanish missions in the south-western United States. Frequently in mission furniture, mission oak, mission style. ΘΚΠ society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > [noun] > types of furniture generally wainscot1589 oak1829 casework1855 Chippendalism1880 Queen Anne1883 Colonial Revival1889 mission furniture1900 Bombay furniture1910 Chinese Chippendale1922 Danish modern1948 patio furniture1969 Populuxe1986 1893 Overland Monthly May 461/1 The Agricultural and Horticultural Building, designed by Samuel Newsom in the old California Spanish Mission style.] 1900 Harper's Bazar 28 Apr. 388/1 An artistic small shop filled to overflowing with what the salesman called Mission furniture. 1906 Out West Feb. 95 In the south these are handsome buildings of Mission design, in harmony with the character and traditions of the country. 1909 P. A. Wells & J. Hooper Mod. Cabinet Work 257 In America there has been a similar movement, known as ‘The Mission Style’, which is more or less a revival of Gothic and Jacobean forms applied to modern work. 1913 H. A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 30 I sat a short hour in one of the black ‘mission’ rocking chairs on the screened veranda puzzling over a serious problem. 1914 S. Lewis Our Mr. Wrenn xiii. 168 It had red and green bracket lights, mission-style tables, and music played by a sparrow-like pianist. 1927 U. Sinclair Oil! 223 Inside was furniture of a style called ‘mission oak’. 1930 J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel i. 122 I've got several magnificent mission style bungalows. 1948 A. L. Kroeber Anthropol. (rev. ed.) xii. 484 The Mission style, which in essentials is nothing but Spanish Moorish architecture. 1967 Boston Sunday Herald 9 Apr. (Show Guide) 15/1 The turn-of-the-century Mission furniture,..coming into popularity with the recent art nouveau revival. 1973 Washington Post 13 Jan. f1/8 (advt.) Big mission oak library table. 1979 Tucson (Arizona) Citizen 3 Oct. 19 c/9 (advt.) Double red brick construction w/mission tile roof. 1989 C. R. Wilson & W. Ferris Encycl. Southern Culture 62/1 In the Southwest the mission style (characterized by semicircular arches, low-pitched tiled roofs, and stucco surfaces) and the pueblo style..evolved. 1991 Canad. House & Home Dec. 46 Excellent reproduction Mission oak furniture based on designs by Gustav Stickley. 1992 N.Y. Times 27 Dec. v. 13/4 The 1919 Federal building, a graceful open-air affair of loggias and porticoes that combines Neo-Classical and Spanish mission characteristics. 1995 Midwest Living Apr. 122 His Mission furniture was straight-lined, all its construction details apparent. Derivatives ˈmissionward adj. rare ΚΠ 1925 T. Dreiser Amer. Trag. I. i. i. 8 The missionward march was taken up. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022). missionv. Brit. /ˈmɪʃn/, U.S. /ˈmɪʃ(ə)n/ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mission n. Etymology: < mission n. Compare French missionner to send (someone) on a mission, to conduct a religious mission (mid 19th cent.), Portuguese missionar to preach the faith (19th cent.). Compare missionize v. Now rare. 1. transitive. To send on a mission; to give (a person) a mission to perform. Usually in passive. ΘΚΠ society > authority > delegated authority > investing with delegated authority > vest authority in a person [verb (transitive)] > send on mission or as delegate sendc950 commissionate1587 attorneya1616 employa1616 to send in legation1649 commission1652 mission1692 1692 T. Beverley Concil. Disc. Dr. Crisp's Serm. 19 Whom the Spirit of God..hath so Missiond, Commission'd, and Enabled. 1737 Dream ii To native Heav'n they're fled, and there have Place, Till mission'd to attend her Rising Race. 1785 Gentleman's Mag. 4 i. 66 The English..thinking that being missioned to the States of Barbary I might command some attention from the Algerines. 1818 J. Keats Endymion i. 36 A disguis'd demon, missioned to knit My soul with under darkness. 1862 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia III. xi. ix. 147 We shall see him expressly missioned hither. 1887 Temple Bar Sept. 32 Parties, each led by its own captain, and missioned to its separate duty, began to go forth. 1994 Compass (Toronto) Mar. 36/3 There is a lot of pain as well as beauty on the shorter route to heaven. But I think next time I'm missioned anywhere, I'll ask for an ice cube. †2. a. transitive. To conduct a religious mission among (a people) or in (a district). Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > conduct mission [verb (transitive)] mission1772 missionarize1830 missionize1875 1772 T. Nugent tr. J. F. de Isla Hist. Friar Gerund I. 287 I have heard the Theatines say [so]..when they come to mission our souls for us. 1894 Westm. Gaz. 25 Apr. 7/1 The young lady missionaries who have been sent out to Algeria to mission the natives. 1894 Mexborough & Swinton Times 30 Nov. 5/2 The brass band missioned the streets morning and afternoon. b. intransitive. To conduct a mission. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ society > faith > worship > preaching > proselytization > mission > conduct mission [verb (intransitive)] missionate1815 missionize1826 mission1898 1898 Athenæum 5 Nov. 648/2 It was used by St. Augustine when he was missioning in those parts. †3. transitive. literary. To send. Obsolete. rare. ΚΠ 1824 T. Hood Two Swans xxi And through the shadows dun He missions like replies. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.a1513v.1692
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missionn.

Compounds

Derivatives

missionv.