Adjacent Words

pariah definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a person who is rejected (from society or home) [syn: outcast, castaway, pariah, Ishmael]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Tamil pa?aiyan, literally, drummer Date: 1613 1. a member of a low caste of southern India 2. one that is despised or rejected ; outcast

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a social outcast. 2 hist. a member of a low caste or of no caste in S. India. Phrases and idioms: pariah-dog = PYE-DOG. Etymology: Tamil paraiyar pl. of paraiyan hereditary drummer f. parai drum

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pariah Pa"ri*ah, n. [From Tamil paraiyan, pl. paraiyar, one of the low caste, fr. parai a large drum, because they beat the drums at certain festivals.] 1. One of an aboriginal people of Southern India, regarded by the four castes of the Hindoos as of very low grade. They are usually the serfs of the Sudra agriculturalists. See Caste. --Balfour (Cyc. of India). 2. An outcast; one despised by society. Pariah dog (Zo["o]l.), a mongrel race of half-wild dogs which act as scavengers in Oriental cities. Pariah kite (Zo["o]l.), a species of kite (Milvus govinda) which acts as a scavenger in India.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pariahs) If you describe someone as a pariah, you mean that other people dislike them so much that they refuse to associate with them. His landlady had treated him like a dangerous criminal, a pariah. = outcast N-COUNT [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Outcast, wretch, miserable person.

Moby Thesaurus

DP, Diogenes, Hieronymian, Hieronymite, Ishmael, Timon of Athens, alien, anchoress, anchorite, ascetic, bedridden invalid, case, castaway, character, cloistered monk, closet cynic, crackpot, crank, declasse, derelict, desert fathers, desert saints, displaced person, eccentric, eremite, evictee, exile, expatriate, expellee, fanatic, hermit, hermitess, hobo, homebody, invalid, isolationist, kook, leper, lone wolf, loner, marabout, maverick, meshuggenah, natural, nonconformist, nut, odd fellow, oddball, oddity, original, outcast, outcast of society, outcaste, outlaw, outsider, persona non grata, pillar saint, pillarist, queer duck, queer fish, queer specimen, rara avis, recluse, screwball, seclusionist, shut-in, social outcast, solitaire, solitary, solitudinarian, stay-at-home, stylite, tramp, type, unacceptable person, undesirable, untouchable, zealot