Other forms: worshipped, worshiped, worshipping, worshiping, worships
To worship is to show deep religious love — praying, singing, kneeling, giving thanks to a god. A packed church on Sunday morning, everyone standing to sing, is worship.
The noun covers the act and the occasion both: morning worship, a place of worship, freedom of worship. Outside religion, worship is what people do about someone they admire far too much — she worships her older brother — and hero worship names the habit. There is one fixed phrase to know: worship the ground someone walks on. In Britain a magistrate or a mayor is addressed as Your Worship, which is the older meaning of the word, honour, still alive in a courtroom. Keep it apart from respect: you respect a teacher, you worship a god.
1verbworshipTo show deep love and reverence for a god, through prayer or ritual.
“They worship in a small hall behind the shops.”
2verbadmireTo admire someone so much that judgement disappears.
“He worshipped his older brother and copied everything he did.”
3nounactThe act or practice of showing religious devotion.
“The chapel is still used for worship on Sunday mornings.”
4nountitleA title of respect used in Britain for a magistrate or mayor.
“The clerk rose and said, "Your Worship, the defendant is present."”
Worship is worth with the ending -ship on it: Old English weorþsċiepe, the state of being worthy, the honour paid to someone. Religion narrowed the word over the centuries and took it almost entirely. The old meaning survives in one odd corner — a magistrate on the bench is still Your Worship.
Old English
weorþsċiepe
Middle English
worschippe//worthschipe
English, today
worship
Middle English worschippe//worthschipe, Old English weorþsċiepe. Cognate with Scots worschip (“worship”). by surface analysis, wor(th) + worth + ship.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA