monkery

American  

[muhng-kuh-ree] / ˈmʌŋ kə ri /

noun

Disparaging.

PLURAL

monkeries

1. the mode of life, behavior, etc., of monks; monastic life.

2. a monastery.

3. monkeries, the practices, beliefs, etc., of monks.

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monkery British  

/ ˈmʌŋkərɪ /

noun

1. monastic life or practices

2. a monastery or monks collectively

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Etymology

Origin of monkery

First recorded in 1530–40; monk + -ery

Example Sentences

Plausible arguments in the same direction have been frequently made since Gibbon's time by comparing the best of Roman civilization with the worst of the self-torturing monkery of the early Christian centuries.

From Project Gutenberg

Catholicism is the undoubted offshoot of Egyptian monkery, as Protestantism is an offshoot of Catholicism, and improperly called a Reformation.

From Project Gutenberg

Were those blissful years the ages of monkery; of Odo and Dunstan, bearding monarchs and branding queens?

From Project Gutenberg

But his romance and antiquarianism, his knighthood and monkery, are all false, and he knows them to be false; does not care to make them earnest; enjoys them for their strangeness, but laughs at his own antiquarianism, all through his own third novel,—with exquisite modesty indeed, but with total misunderstanding of the function of an Antiquary.

From Project Gutenberg

"Well, if you do, I'll bury myself for the rest of my miserable Days in a—in a—a Monkery!"

From Project Gutenberg