friar
Americannoun
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Roman Catholic Church. a member of a religious order, especially the mendicant orders of Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Augustinians.
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Printing. a blank or light area on a printed page caused by uneven inking of the plate or type.
noun
Related Words
See monk.
Other Word Forms
- friarly adjective
Etymology
Origin of friar
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English frier, frere “brother,” from Old French frere, from Latin frāter; brother
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.
"His family were in finance and they were working really temporarily in London," says Father Paul Addison, a friar at the church.
From BBC
It was closely associated with the Spanish conquest, Spanish friars acting as de facto colonial administrators and the church becoming a big landowner.
From BBC
A few accounts say friars who presented Guatemalan Mayans to Philip II of Spain in 1544 also gifted him cacao beans.
From Salon
A theologian who later became a Dominican friar, he revolutionised Church teachings with his 1971 book Theology of Liberation.
From BBC
A friar who knew of his struggle encouraged him to start dating a woman, but it didn’t feel natural.
From BBC
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.
