OF'FERTORY, n. The act of offering, or the thing offered. [Little used.] 1. Offertory was properly an anthem chanted or a voluntary played on the organ during the offering and a part of the mass, in the Catholic church; but since the reformation it denotes certain sentences in the communion-office, read while the alms are collecting.2. Anciently, the linen on which the offering was laid.
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