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

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

Show me where I can go to be an anchoress, since they will not have me in a convent or anywhere,” and bitterly she wept.

From Grisly Grisell by Yonge, Charlotte Mary

Stop before the house of this anchoress, secluded from the world, and absorbed in pious meditations, a holy and quiet place.

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