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.
A last conventicle was held at the house of Santerre the brewer, chief of battalion of the National Guard of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, on the night of June 19-20.
From Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty by Arthur Léon, baron Imbert de Saint-Amand
The lower room of the ground floor, a hall with a large fireplace and surrounded with benches and tables, had served in the last century as a meeting-place for a conventicle of French Protestant refugees.
From Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
In the open space—where was then no fair garden inclosed with palisades, it being a rendezvous for mountebanks, dancing bears, and baited bulls—the populace kindled a bonfire, and consumed the ruins of the conventicle.
From London in Modern Times or, Sketches of the English Metropolis during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. by Unknown
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
However they brought in an Act to imprison all who went to a conventicle, or who seduced others from repairing to the Public Congregation or from receiving the Holy Sacrament.
From The West Indies and the Spanish Main by James Rodway
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