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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

anchoress

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

I'll not go back to my anchoress lodge in the north till I see what works out of them!

From The Herd Boy and His Hermit by Charlotte Mary Yonge

“A peering anchoress, who is always thrusting her head outward, is like an untamed bird in a cage,” says the good bishop.

From English Villages by P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield

There was an anchorite in one corner of Faversham churchyard, and an anchoress in another, and in their cells they sat and sulked their lives away, and never did any work.

From The Dover Road Annals of an Ancient Turnpike by Charles G. Harper

For a case of doubt in an anchoress, which, however ended well, see ib.

From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Eileen Power

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