Laity

3 definitions found

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

  Laity \La"i*ty\ (l[=a]"[i^]*t[y^]), n. [See {Lay}, a.]
     1. The people, as distinguished from the clergy; the body of
        the people not in orders.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A rising up of the laity against the sacerdotal


              caste.                                --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The state of a layman. [Obs.] --Ayliffe.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Those who are not of a certain profession, as law or
        medicine, in distinction from those belonging to it.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  laity
       n : everyone except the clergy [syn: {temporalty}] [ant: {clergy}]

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  LAITY. Those persons who do not make a part of the clergy. In the United 
  States the division of the people into clergy and laity is not authorized by 
  law, but is, merely conventional.