church bench
1
1.4
- noun
- During the service, the congregation sat quietly on the church bench, listening to the choir.
Examples
-
Whose mother and father forgot their own baby on the church bench?
Fiction book (1993) -
I guess I don't want a girl who was left on a church bench, anyway.
Fiction book (1993) -
And she was never left on a church bench!"
Fiction book (1993) -
Whenever Daniel talked of the church bench incident, she felt this way.
Fiction book (1993) -
The looks of the church bench neighbors will do the rest on their own.
Blog text (30) -
She was never again going to worry about that church bench story.
Fiction book (1993) -
The old church bench was crafted from oak and had been in the building for over a century.
-
After the sermon, many people lingered in discussion while seated on the church bench.
Synonyms
286
1.0
A long hard seat for several people, often made of wood
40
5.3
A long bench with a back in a church for people to sit on
1
3.5
A long bench in a church where people sit during services
How Comfortable
1
1.4
106
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a long bench used for seating members of the congregation in a church' is directly and transparently derivable from combining 'church' (the location/type) with 'bench' (a long seat). This straightforward noun–noun compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common and would be obvious to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
The compound noun church bench comes from the clear image of a long wooden bench inside a church where people sit for services. That's why it means 'a long bench with a back used for seating people in the church'.