2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Litany  \Lit"a*ny\,  n.;  pl  {Litanies}.  [OE.  letanie  OF 
  letanie  F.  litanie,  L.  litania,  Gr  ?,  fr  ?  to  pray,  akin 
  to  ?,  ?,  to  pray,  ?  prayer.] 
  A  solemn  form  of  supplication  in  the  public  worship  of 
  various  churches,  in  which  the  clergy  and  congregation  join 
  the  former  leading  and  the  latter  responding  in  alternate 
  sentences.  It  is  usually  of  a  penitential  character. 
 
  Supplications  .  .  .  for  the  appeasing  of  God's  wrath 
  were  of  the  Greek  church  termed  litanies,  and  rogations 
  of  the  Latin.  --Hooker. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  litany 
  n  1:  any  long  and  tedious  address  or  recital;  "the  patient 
  recited  a  litany  of  complaints" 
  2:  a  prayer  consisting  of  a  series  of  invocations  by  the  priest 
  with  responses  from  the  congregation  [syn:  {Litany}] 

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