Ishmaelite

American  

[ish-mee-uh-lahyt, -mey-uh-, -muh-] / ˈɪʃ mi əˌlaɪt, -meɪ ə-, -mə- /

noun

1. a descendant of Ishmael, the traditional ancestor of the Arab peoples.

2. a wanderer or outcast.

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Ishmaelite British  

/ ˈɪʃmeɪəˌlaɪt /

noun

1. a supposed descendant of Ishmael; a member of a desert people of Old Testament times

2. rare an outcast

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Ishmaelitism
  noun
• Ishmaelitish
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of Ishmaelite

First recorded in 1570–80; Ishmael + -ite ¹

Example Sentences

They scorn their dreaming brother's right To visions he may have, And to the warring Ishmaelite They sell him as a slave.

From War Rhymes by Wayfarer by Cosens, Abner

He would lose the baleful consciousness of forever walking apart, separated from his kind, a spiritual Ishmaelite.

From The Emigrant Trail by Bonner, Geraldine

Here we have the first rude germ of that opposition of will which makes the Ishmaelite look on others as his foes.

From Children's Ways by Sully, James

He would be an "Ishmaelite," finding "casus belli" in all the purposes of fate.

From Oswald Langdon or, Pierre and Paul Lanier. A Romance of 1894-1898 by Lee, Carson Jay

I should have been a thorough Ishmaelite if I had not been an artist; but the artistic instinct conquered the nomadic and in my twentieth year I went to Rome to study.

From Winter Evening Tales by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston