conventicle
Americannoun
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a secret or unauthorized meeting, especially for religious worship, as those held by Protestant dissenters in England in the 16th and 17th centuries.
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a place of meeting or assembly, especially a Nonconformist meeting house.
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Obsolete. a meeting or assembly.
noun
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a secret or unauthorized assembly for worship
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a small meeting house or chapel for a religious assembly, esp of Nonconformists or Dissenters
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of conventicle
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin conventiculum a small assembly. See convent, -i-, -cle 1
Vocabulary lists containing conventicle
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.
W. G. On our way to the conventicle we came to the place that is called the Moat of the Duchrae Bank, and found much people already gathered there.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
"Who is responsible for this conventicle?" he continued, urging his horse towards the ducking stool.
From A Lad of Grit A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea in Restoration Times by Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
It sounded like the cant of the conventicle to ears unaccustomed to the language of piety from the lips of politicians.
From Abraham Lincoln: Was He A Christian? by John B. Remsburg
Notwithstanding, or just because of this, Madame Krüdener, in 1814, with her conventicle pietism, found an entrance there, and won in the young theologian Empaytaz a zealous supporter and an apostle of conversion preaching.
From Church History, Vol. 3 of 3 by J. H. Kurtz
In the sixth year of his marriage Baxter was brought before the magistrates for holding a conventicle, and was sentenced to be confined in Clerkenwell Gaol.
From How to be Happy Though Married Being a Handbook to Marriage by Edward John Hardy
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.
