anchoress

American  

[ang-ker-is] / ˈæŋ kər ɪs /

noun

1. a woman who is an anchorite.

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Gender

What's the difference between anchoress and anchor? See -ess.

Etymology

Origin of anchoress

First recorded in 1350–1400; late Middle English anchoryse, Middle English ankres, equivalent to ancre anchorite + -es -ess

Example Sentences

Julian lived as an anchoress, a type of religious hermit, and was likely bricked up inside a small stone cell during her 40-odd years of monastic life.

From New York Times • Jan. 21, 2011

An old woman sits under the window; the anchoress appears and a conversation begins.

From A Literary History of the English People From the Origins to the Renaissance by Jusserand, Jean Jules

The "cold, wise one," the "anchoress," fell in love with him soon after the lessons began, but carefully hid her feelings from every one.

From The Loves of Great Composers by Kobbé, Gustav

Tha�s was certainly the Egyptian courtesan turned anchoress and canonized, famous in the middle ages and revived to-day in the repulsive masterpiece of M. Anatole France.

From Avril Being Essays on the Poetry of the French Renaissance by Belloc, Hilaire

Her purity led her own mother to speak other as an "anchoress."

From The Loves of Great Composers by Kobbé, Gustav