Ishmaelite

American  

[ish-mee-uh-lahyt, -mey-uh-, -muh-] / ˈɪʃ mi əˌlaɪt, -meɪ ə-, -mə- /

noun

1. a descendant of Ishmael, the traditional ancestor of the Arab peoples.

2. a wanderer or outcast.

---

Ishmaelite British  

/ ˈɪʃmeɪəˌlaɪt /

noun

1. a supposed descendant of Ishmael; a member of a desert people of Old Testament times

2. rare an outcast

---

Other Word Forms

• Ishmaelitism
  noun
• Ishmaelitish
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of Ishmaelite

First recorded in 1570–80; Ishmael + -ite ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Ishmaelite

He was a boy; a raw-boned green boy, smarting under a sense of injustice, a regular, thorough-paced young Ishmaelite as you ever saw.

From Roger Ingleton, Minor by Reed, Talbot Baines

That he himself would not demur to this estimate may be inferred from the fact that he was wont to describe himself, in his younger days, as a 'political Ishmaelite.'

From The Day of Sir John Macdonald A Chronicle of the First Prime Minister of the Dominion by Pope, Joseph, Sir

The whole world seemed turned against him—in the flower of early manhood he found himself unwillingly and undeservedly an Ishmaelite.

From Second Book of Tales by Field, Eugene

And this good, at least, has to be recorded of him, that he saved the family of Thomas Wanless from want, by consequence, also, in all probability, saving Thomas himself from becoming an abandoned Ishmaelite.

From The Life of Thomas Wanless, Peasant by Wilson, Alexander Johnstone

Simeon, Levi and Judah are successively denied by their brother Reuben the use of an axe which he had bought of the Ishmaelite merchants, and which he highly prized.

From Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume II (of 2) A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings by Bruce, Wiliam Cabell