conventicle

American  

[kuhn-ven-ti-kuhl] / kənˈvɛn tɪ kəl /

noun

1. a secret or unauthorized meeting, especially for religious worship, as those held by Protestant dissenters in England in the 16th and 17th centuries.

2. a place of meeting or assembly, especially a Nonconformist meeting house.

3. Obsolete. a meeting or assembly.

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conventicle British  

/ kənˈvɛntɪkəl /

noun

1. a secret or unauthorized assembly for worship

2. a small meeting house or chapel for a religious assembly, esp of Nonconformists or Dissenters

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Other Word Forms

• conventicler noun
• conventicular adjective

Etymology

Origin of conventicle

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin conventiculum a small assembly. See convent, -i-, -cle ¹

Example Sentences

If therefore, in our case, the husband committed a crime punishable in itself, how could he assemble a number of men forming a conventicle prohibited by the Banns, without incurring the penalty threatened by them?

From The Old Yellow Book Source of Robert Browning's The Ring and the Book by Anonymous

Either not a single stole, or not a single conventicle!

From The Works of Honor? de Balzac About Catherine de' Medici, Seraphita and Other Stories by Balzac, Honor? de

In the height of his resentment he addressed first one, and then another, "What, have you been to the conventicle?"

From Memorials of the Independent Churches in Northamptonshire with biographical notices of their pastors, and some account of the puritan ministers who laboured in the county. by Coleman, Thomas

Also, though there is no church, there are two chapels; one of retiring position, the other conventicle of aggressive and red, red brick.

From The Brighton Road The Classic Highway to the South by Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)

They have but one set conventicle amongst them, viz: a meeting of Quakers in Nansemond county, others that have lately, been being now extinct; and 'tis observed by letting them alone they decrease daily.

From The History of Virginia, in Four Parts by Beverley, Robert