peculiar people

American  

plural noun

1. the Jews as being God's chosen people. Deuteronomy 14:2.

2. (usually initial capital letters) a name adopted by certain fundamentalist Christian sects, signifying their refusal to conform to any rule of conduct that is contrary to the letter or spirit of the Bible.

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peculiar people British  

plural noun

1. (sometimes capitals) a small sect of faith healers founded in London in 1838, having no ministers or external organization

2. the Jews considered as God's elect

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Etymology

Origin of peculiar people

First recorded in 1485–95

Example Sentences

“It’s only peculiar people like you that I want to impress.”

From BusinessWeek • Jul. 5, 2011

The problem of the Christian majority, particularly in America," says Niebuhr, "is to come to terms with the stubborn will to live of the Jews as a peculiar people, both religiously and ethnically.

From Time Magazine Archive

The welfare of the whole race was no less the object of the Jewish than of the Christian dispensation, though its apparent privileges were confined to the peculiar people.

From The Essential Faith of the Universal Church Deduced from the Sacred Records by Martineau, Harriet

No judgment which came upon God's peculiar people ever made a complete end of the nation.

From The Prophet Ezekiel An Analytical Exposition by Gaebelein, Arno C.

Celestial visions had been familiar to every Jew from his infancy, and the constant personal communications of the Almighty with his peculiar people were still the most sacred traditions of the nation.

From Supernatural Religion, Vol. III. (of III) An Inquiry into the Reality of Divine Revelation by Cassels, Walter Richard