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Synonyms

friary

American  
[frahy-uh-ree] / ˈfraɪ ə ri /

noun

  • friaries
    plural
  1. a monastery of friars, especially those of a mendicant order.

  2. a brotherhood of friars.


friary British  
/ ˈfraɪərɪ /

noun

  1. Christianity a convent or house of friars

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of friary

1300–50; late Middle English freyry, frayry, Middle English frari < Anglo-French, Old French frairie, frarie; see friar, -y 3


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

However, the Richard III Society and University of Leicester archaeologists decided to investigate suggestions the king had actually been buried in the former Greyfriars friary in the city.

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

Most of the dead were buried in town cemeteries or plague pits such as one on Bene't Street next to the former friary.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 1, 2023

They also collected similar samples from 25 nonmonastic skeletons interred around the same time at a rural parish around a kilometer away from the friary ruins.

From Science Magazine ● Aug. 18, 2022

Mr. McCarrick, who has never been criminally charged, has been living in an undisclosed location since leaving a Capuchin friary in Kansas in January.

From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2020

In the town, not far from St. Antony's little friary, there was one day a meeting of Franciscan and Dominican Friars for an important ceremony.

From Stories of the Saints by Candle-Light by Vera C. (Vera Charlesworth) Barclay

Many friaries were even outfitted with running water systems—a luxury absent from even aristocratic households of the time—to allow the friars to wash their hands.

From Science Magazine ● Aug. 18, 2022

The friars proved extremely obstinate, and Henry sent commissioners to seek out and suppress all those friaries that refused to submit.

From London and the Kingdom - Volume I by Reginald R. (Reginald Robinson) Sharpe

They met with great success, and at the founder's death the Dominicans had as many as sixty friaries in various European cities.

From Early European History by Hutton Webster

Besides the southern places mentioned in this bequest, friaries in the east, at Norwich and Ipswich, and in the west, at Hereford and Bristol, had goodly libraries.

From Old English Libraries by Ernest Albert Savage

He made his new associates envious with an account of the goods of the friaries at Roxburgh and Berwick.

From Old English Libraries by Ernest Albert Savage

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