Priority of debts, a superior claim to payment, or a claim to payment
before others.
Syn. -- Antecedence; precedence; preÎminence.
Pri"or*ly (?), adv. Previously. [R.] Geddes.
Pri"or*ship, n. The state or office of prior; priorate.
Pri"o*ry (?), n.; pl. Priories (#). [Cf. LL. prioria. See Prior, n.] A
religious house presided over by a prior or prioress; -- sometimes an
offshoot of, an subordinate to, an abbey, and called also cell, and
obedience. See Cell, 2.
Of such houses there were two sorts: one where the prior was chosen by
the inmates, and governed as independently as an abbot in an abbey; the
other where the priory was subordinate to an abbey, and the prior was
placed or displaced at the will of the abbot.
Alien priory, a small religious house dependent on a large monastery in
some other country.
Syn. -- See Cloister.