Adjacent Words

Ascetic definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ASCET'IC, a. [Gr. exercised, hardened; from to exercise.
Retired from the world; rigid; severe; austere; employed in devotions and mortifications.
ASCET'IC, n.
1. One who retires from the customary business of life, and devotes himself to the duties of piety and devotion; a hermit; a recluse.
2. The title of certain books, on devout exercises; as the ascetics of St. Basil.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic or the practice of rigorous self-discipline; "ascetic practices" [syn: ascetic, ascetical]
2: practicing great self-denial; "Be systematically ascetic...do...something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it"- William James; "a desert nomad's austere life"; "a spartan diet"; "a spartan existence" [syn: ascetic, ascetical, austere, spartan] n
1: someone who practices self denial as a spiritual discipline [syn: abstainer, ascetic]

Merriam Webster's

also ascetical adjective Etymology: Greek ask?tikos, literally, laborious, from ask?t?s one that exercises, hermit, from askein to work, exercise Date: 1646 1. practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline 2. austere in appearance, manner, or attitude Synonyms: see severe • ascetic noun • ascetically adverb • asceticism noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & adj. --n. a person who practises severe self-discipline and abstains from all forms of pleasure, esp. for religious or spiritual reasons. --adj. relating to or characteristic of ascetics or asceticism; abstaining from pleasure. Derivatives: ascetically adv. asceticism n. Etymology: med.L asceticus or Gk asketikos f. asketes monk f. askeo exercise

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ascetic As*cet"ica. [Gr. ?, fr. ? to exercise, to practice gymnastics.] Extremely rigid in self-denial and devotions; austere; severe. The stern ascetic rigor of the Temple discipline. --Sir W. Scott.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ascetic As*cet"ic, n. In the early church, one who devoted himself to a solitary and contemplative life, characterized by devotion, extreme self-denial, and self-mortification; a hermit; a recluse; hence, one who practices extreme rigor and self-denial in religious things. I am far from commending those ascetics that take up their quarters in deserts. --Norris. Ascetic theology, the science which treats of the practice of the theological and moral virtues, and the counsels of perfection. --Am. Cyc.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(ascetics) An ascetic person has a way of life that is simple and strict, usually because of their religious beliefs. ADJ: usu ADJ n • An ascetic is someone who is ascetic. N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. Austere, rigid, severe, stern, puritan ical, over-renunciatory, over-self-denying, self-mortifying, over-abstinent. II. n. Recluse, hermit, anchoret, anchorite, solitary, solitaire, eremite, devotee, mortifier of the flesh.

Moby Thesaurus

Albigensian, Apostolic, Apostolici, Catharist, Diogenes, Encratic, Encratite, Franciscan, Hieronymian, Hieronymite, Lenten, Pythagorean, Pythagorist, Rechabite, Sabbatarian, Shaker, Spartan, Stoic, Timon of Athens, Trappist, Waldensian, abbacomes, abbot, abstainer, abstemious, abstinent, anchoress, anchorite, anchoritic, apologetic, astringent, atoning, austere, bald, banian, bare, beadsman, bedridden invalid, bhikshu, brother, caloyer, candid, celibate, cenobite, chaste, cleansing, cloistered monk, closet cynic, common, commonplace, compensational, compensatory, continent, conventual, conventual prior, dervish, desert fathers, desert saints, direct, disciplined, dry, dull, dwarfed, dwarfish, eremite, eremitic, exiguous, expiatory, fakir, flagellant, forbearing, frank, friar, frugal, fruitarian, grand prior, gymnosophist, hermit, hermitess, hieromonach, homebody, homely, homespun, hydropot, impoverished, invalid, isolationist, jejune, lay abbot, lay brother, lean, limited, loner, lustral, lustrational, lustrative, marabout, matter-of-fact, meager, mean, mendicant, miserly, monastic, monk, mortified, narrow, natural, neat, nephalist, nephalistic, niggardly, on the wagon, open, outcast, palmer, paltry, pariah, parsimonious, penitential, piacular, pilgrim, pillar saint, pillarist, plain, plain-speaking, plain-spoken, poor, prior, propitiatory, prosaic, prosing, prosy, puny, pure, purgative, purgatorial, purifying, puritan, puritanical, reclamatory, recluse, recompensing, redeeming, redemptive, redressing, religieux, religious, reparative, reparatory, repentant, repenting, restitutional, restitutive, restitutory, restrained, righting, rigoristic, rustic, sannyasi, satisfactional, scant, scanty, schooled, scrawny, scrimp, scrimpy, seclusionist, self-abasing, self-abnegating, self-denying, self-forgetful, selfless, severe, sexually abstinent, shut-in, simple, simple-speaking, skimp, skimpy, slender, slight, slim, small, sober, solitaire, solitary, solitudinarian, spare, sparing, squaring, stark, starvation, stay-at-home, stern, stingy, stinted, straightforward, straitened, stunted, stylite, subsistence, sworn off, teetotal, teetotaler, teetotalist, thin, trained, unadorned, unaffected, unimaginative, unnourishing, unnutritious, unpoetical, unvarnished, vegetarian, water-drinker, watered, watery, wedded to poverty, yogi, yogin