Library / English Dictionary

ASCETIC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who practices self denial as a spiritual discipline

Synonyms:

abstainer; ascetic

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("ascetic" is a kind of...):

religious person (a person who manifests devotion to a deity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ascetic"):

puritan (someone who adheres to strict religious principles; someone opposed to sensual pleasures)

stylite (an early Christian ascetic who lived on top of high pillars)

Derivation:

ascetic (practicing great self-denial)

ascetic (pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic or the practice of rigorous self-discipline)

ascetical (practicing great self-denial)

ascetical (pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic or the practice of rigorous self-discipline)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Practicing great self-denial

Example:

a spartan existence

Synonyms:

ascetic; ascetical; austere; spartan

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

abstemious (sparing in consumption of especially food and drink)

Derivation:

ascetic (someone who practices self denial as a spiritual discipline)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic or the practice of rigorous self-discipline

Example:

ascetic practices

Synonyms:

ascetic; ascetical

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Pertainym:

ascetic (someone who practices self denial as a spiritual discipline)

Derivation:

ascetic (someone who practices self denial as a spiritual discipline)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I knew not what wild beast we were about to hunt down in the dark jungle of criminal London, but I was well assured, from the bearing of this master huntsman, that the adventure was a most grave one—while the sardonic smile which occasionally broke through his ascetic gloom boded little good for the object of our quest.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At times, so tightly did they draw, the mouth became stern and harsh, even ascetic.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Now I knew that under ordinary conditions he no longer craved for this artificial stimulus, but I was well aware that the fiend was not dead but sleeping, and I have known that the sleep was a light one and the waking near when in periods of idleness I have seen the drawn look upon Holmes’s ascetic face, and the brooding of his deep-set and inscrutable eyes.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)