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View synonyms for mendicant

mendicant

[ men-di-kuhnt ]

adjective

  1. begging; practicing begging; living on alms.
  2. pertaining to or characteristic of a beggar.


noun

  1. a person who lives by begging; beggar.
  2. a member of any of several orders of friars that originally forbade ownership of property, subsisting mostly on alms.

mendicant

/ mɛnˈdɪsɪtɪ; ˈmɛndɪkənt /

adjective

  1. begging
  2. (of a member of a religious order) dependent on alms for sustenance

    mendicant friars

  3. characteristic of a beggar
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. a mendicant friar
  2. a less common word for beggar
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Derived Forms

  • ˈmendicancy, noun
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Other Words From

  • non·mendi·cant adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of mendicant1

1425–75; late Middle English < Latin mendīcant- (stem of mendīcāns ), present participle of mendīcāre to beg, equivalent to mendīc ( us ) beggarly, needy + -ant- -ant
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Word History and Origins

Origin of mendicant1

C16: from Latin mendīcāre to beg, from mendīcus beggar, from mendus flaw
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Example Sentences

He has been on intimate terms with czar and serf, he has met millionaire and mendicant, he has hobnobbed with prince and pauper.

In a way of speaking, this mendicant of Coney Island was perhaps of this class.

They probably despised her already; how much more they would despise her in the character of a mendicant!

I must go there, if I clothe myself in the rags of a mendicant lama and beg my way from one black tent to another.

In a few days the town of Brussels swarmed with ash-gray garments such as were usually worn by mendicant friars and penitents.

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mendicancymendicity