credence

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Acceptance as true or valid; belief. See Synonyms at belief.
2. n. Claim to acceptance; trustworthiness.
3. n. Recommendation; credentials: a letter of credence.
4. n. A small table or shelf for holding the bread, wine, and vessels of the Eucharist when they are not in use at the altar.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Belief; credit; reliance of the mind on evidence of facts derived from other sources than personal knowledge, as from the testimony of others.
2. n. That which gives a claim to credit, belief, or confidence; credentials: now used only in the phrase letter of credence (a paper intended to commend the bearer to the confidence of a third person).
3. n. Some act or process of testing the nature or character of food before serving it, as a precaution against poison, formerly practised in royal or noble households.
4. n. In medieval times, a side-table or side-board on which the food was placed to be tasted before serving; hence, in later use, a cupboard or cabinet for the display of plate, etc.
5. n. Eccles., in the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, a small table, slab, or shelf against the wall of the sanctuary or chancel, near the epistle side of the altar (on the right of one facing it). On the credence are placed the cruets, the vessel (canister, pyx, or ciborium) for the altar-breads, the lavabobasin and napkin, etc. Sometimes a niche in the sanctuary-wall serves the same purpose. At high mass in the Roman Catholic Church, and at all celebrations in the Anglican Church, the elements are taken from the credence at the time of the offertory. In the Greek Church there is no credence, the table in the chapel of prothesis (see prothesis) serving instead. Also called credence-table. Synonyms Confidence, trust, faith.
6. To give credence to; believe.

Wiktionary

1. n. Acceptance of a belief or claim as true, especially on the basis of evidence.
2. n. rare Credential or supporting material for a person or claim.
3. n. religion A small table or credenza used in certain Christian religious services.
4. v. obsolete To give credence to; to believe.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Reliance of the mind on evidence of facts derived from other sources than personal knowledge; belief; credit; confidence.
2. n. That which gives a claim to credit, belief, or confidence.
3. n. (Eccl.) The small table by the side of the altar or communion table, on which the bread and wine are placed before being consecrated.
4. n. A cupboard, sideboard, or cabinet, particularly one intended for the display of rich vessels or plate, and consisting chiefly of open shelves for that purpose.
5. v. obsolete To give credence to; to believe.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a kind of sideboard or buffet
2. n. the mental attitude that something is believable and should be accepted as true