Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRES-ENT-A'TION, n. [Fr.]

1. The act of presenting. Prayers are sometimes a presentation of mere desires. – Hooker.
2. Exhibition; representation; display; as, the presentation of fighting on the stage. – Dryden.
3. In ecclesiastical law, the act of offering a clerk to the bishop or ordinary for institution in a benefice. An advowson is the right of presentation. If the bishop admits the patron's presentation, the clerk so admitted is next to be instituted by him. – Blackstone.
4. The right of presenting a clerk. The patron has the presentation of the benefice.