10 definitions found for celibacy

Celibacy CELIBACY, n. An unmarried state; a single life. It is most frequently if not always applied to males, or to a voluntary single life.
They look on celibacy as an accursed state.

celibacy n 1: an unmarried status 2: abstaining from sexual relations (as because of religious vows) [syn: chastity, celibacy, sexual abstention]

celibacy 1663, formed in Eng. from L. c?ilibatus "state of being unmarried," from c?ilebs "unmarried," from PIE base *kaiwelo- "alone" + lib(h)s- "living." Celibate first recorded 1829.

celibacy noun Date: 1646 1. the state of not being married 2. a. abstention from sexual intercourse b. abstention by vow from marriage

celibacy Celibacy is the state of being celibate. N-UNCOUNT

Celibacy But earthly happier is the rose distill'd, Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness. SHAKESPEARE: Mid. N. Dream, Act i., Sc. 1. Our Maker bids increase; who bids abstain But our destroyer, foe to God and man? MILTON: Par. Lost, Bk. iv., Line 748.

Celibacy Ce*lib"a*cy, n. [See Celibate, n.] The state of being unmarried; single life, esp. that of a bachelor, or of one bound by vows not to marry. ``The celibacy of the clergy.'' --Hallom.

celibacy n. Single life, unmarried state, abstinence from marriage.

celibacy ˈselɪbəsɪ n. 1 bachelorhood, spinsterhood, singleness: People who say they enjoy celibacy may simply have not met the right partner. 2 chastity, virginity, continence, (self-)restraint, abstinence, purity: They have to take a vow of celibacy before entering the priesthood.

68 Moby Thesaurus words for "celibacy": Encratism, Friday, Lenten fare, Platonic love, Pythagoreanism, Pythagorism, Rechabitism, Shakerism, Spartan fare, Stoicism, abstainment, abstemiousness, abstention, abstinence, alienation, aloneness, aloofness, asceticism, avoidance, bachelorhood, banyan day, chastity, continence, continency, detachment, eschewal, fast, fish day, friarhood, fruitarianism, gymnosophy, intactness, isolation, keeping apart, loneliness, loneness, lonesomeness, maidenhead, maidenhood, monachism, monasticism, monkery, moving apart, nephalism, plain living, privacy, purity, refraining, refrainment, seclusion, self-restraint, separateness, sequestration, sexual abstinence, simple diet, single blessedness, singleness, solitariness, solitude, spare diet, spinsterhood, splendid isolation, teetotalism, the pledge, total abstinence, vegetarianism, virginity, withdrawal