provincial Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun (Roman Catholic Church) an official in charge of an ecclesiastical province acting under the superior general of a religious order
- the general of the Jesuits receives monthly reports from the provincials
noun a country person
bucolic; peasant.
adjective of or associated with a province
- provincial government
adjective characteristic of the provinces or their people
- deeply provincial and conformist
- in that well-educated company I felt uncomfortably provincial
- narrow provincial attitudes

L. provincialis: cf. F. provincial. See Province, and cf. Provencal.

Of or pertaining to province; constituting a province; as, a provincial government; a provincial dialect.
Exhibiting the ways or manners of a province; characteristic of the inhabitants of a province; not cosmopolitan; countrified; not polished; rude; hence, narrow; illiberal. "Provincial airs and graces." Macaulay.
Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical province, or to the jurisdiction of an archbishop; not ecumenical; as, a provincial synod. Ayliffe.
Of or pertaining to Provence; Provencal. Obs.
With two Provincial roses on my razed shoes. Shak.

A person belonging to a province; one who is provincial.
(R. C. Ch.) A monastic superior, who, under the general of his order, has the direction of all the religious houses of the same fraternity in a given district, called a province of the order.