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

Is the case of this anchoress a unique one?

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

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 Harper, Charles G.

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

From The Loves of Great Composers by Kobbé, Gustav

The townsmen of Gratz, hoarse-voiced touzleheads mostly, divined her to be an anchoress, a saint, or an unfortunate.

From The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay by Hewlett, Maurice Henry