Ascetic

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ascetic \As*cet"ic\a. [Gr. ?, fr. ? to exercise, to practice
     gymnastics.]
     Extremely rigid in self-denial and devotions; austere;
     severe.
     [1913 Webster]
  


           The stern ascetic rigor of the Temple discipline. --Sir
                                                    W. Scott.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           I am far from commending those ascetics that take up
           their quarters in deserts.               --Norris.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Ascetic theology}, the science which treats of the practice
        of the theological and moral virtues, and the counsels of
        perfection. --Am. Cyc.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ascetic
       adj 1: pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic or the
              practice of rigorous self-discipline; "ascetic
              practices" [syn: {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: {ascetical}, {austere}, {spartan}]
       n : practices self denial as spiritual discipline [syn: {abstainer}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  221 Moby Thesaurus words for "ascetic":
     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