Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Homily \Hom"i*ly\, n.; pl. {Homilies}. [LL. homilia, Gr. ?
   communion, assembly, converse, sermon, fr. ? an assembly, fr.
   ? same; cf. ? together, and ? crowd, cf. ? to press: cf. F.
   hom['e]lie. See {Same}.]
   1. A discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience; a
      serious discourse. --Shak.

   2. A serious or tedious exhortation in private on some moral
      point, or on the conduct of life.

            As I have heard my father Deal out in his long
            homilies.                             --Byron.

   {Book of Homilies}. A collection of authorized, printed
      sermons, to be read by ministers in churches, esp. one
      issued in the time of Edward VI., and a second, issued in
      the reign of Elizabeth; -- both books being certified to
      contain a ``godly and wholesome doctrine.''