Library / English Dictionary

FRIAR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A male member of a religious order that originally relied solely on alms

Synonyms:

friar; mendicant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

religious (a member of a religious order who is bound by vows of poverty and chastity and obedience)

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

Carmelite; White Friar (a Roman Catholic friar wearing the white cloak of the Carmelite order; mendicant preachers)

Black Friar; Blackfriar; Dominican; friar preacher (a Roman Catholic friar wearing the black mantle of the Dominican order)

Franciscan; Grey Friar (a Roman Catholic friar wearing the grey habit of the Franciscan order)

Augustinian (a Roman Catholic friar or monk belonging to one of the Augustinian monastic orders)

Credits

 Context examples: 

In front of the minster and abbey of St. Andrew's was a large square crowded with priests, soldiers, women, friars, and burghers, who made it their common centre for sight-seeing and gossip.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Alleyne passed him swiftly by, for he had learned from the monks to have no love for the wandering friars, and, besides, there was a great half-gnawed mutton bone sticking out of his pouch to prove him a liar.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then there came a gray friar, or minorite, with a good paunch upon him, walking slowly and looking about him with the air of a man who was at peace with himself and with all men.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I dare scarce wag my tongue so freely with you as when we tramped together past Wilverley Chase, else I might be your guide now, for indeed I know every house in Bordeaux as a friar knows the beads on his rosary.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mort Dieu! cried the bowman, there is a bucketful or more of my blood over in France, but it was all spilled in hot fight, and I should think twice before I drew it drop by drop as these friars are doing.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then came archers of the guard, shrill-voiced women of the camp, English pages with their fair skins and blue wondering eyes, dark-robed friars, lounging men-at-arms, swarthy loud-tongued Gascon serving-men, seamen from the river, rude peasants of the Medoc, and becloaked and befeathered squires of the court, all jostling and pushing in an ever-changing, many-colored stream, while English, French, Welsh, Basque, and the varied dialects of Gascony and Guienne filled the air with their babel.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)