anchoress
Americannoun
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
Could any words more completely express the infinity of love's desire, ever unsatisfied even in possession, than does this love-cry from the heart of Julian the anchoress of Norwich?
From Mysticism in English Literature by Spurgeon, Caroline F. E.
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
She is apparently not to be confused with another famous anchoress, Julian Lampet, bequests to whom are often recorded in Norwich wills between 1426 and 1478.
From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Power, Eileen
Similarly the author of the Ancren Riwle warns his three anchoresses: An anchoress must not become a schoolmistress, nor turn her anchoress-house into a school for children.
From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Power, Eileen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
