spiritual incest
Britishnoun
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marriage or a sexual relationship between persons related by spiritual affinity or with a person under a solemn vow of chastity
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the holding of two benefices by the same priest or bishop
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.
Carl Hasselmann and his sister Ellie, provincial, supersensitive Americans, dwell in the uneasy revulsions of a sort of spiritual incest.
From Time Magazine Archive
He brought into sharp outline the spiritual incest of the confessor, though he modestly refrained from specifying how far he had carried his profligacy.
From Project Gutenberg
The heads of that company, in the account which they render to the chancellor of this their sentence, testify that this curé was in truth accused of sorcery, but that he had been condemned to the flames as guilty, and convicted of spiritual incest with his penitent, Madelaine de la Palu.
From Project Gutenberg
It is a dynamic spiritual incest, more dangerous than sensual incest, because it is more intangible and less instinctively repugnant.
From Project Gutenberg
There seems, indeed, to be such a thing as spiritual incest.
From Project Gutenberg
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.
