The Collaborative International Dictionary
Auricular \Au*ric"u*lar\ ([add]*r[i^]k"[-u]*l[~e]r), a. [LL. auricularis: cf. F. auriculaire. See Auricle.]
Of or pertaining to the ear, or to the sense of hearing; as, auricular nerves.
-
Told in the ear, i. e., told privately; as, auricular confession to the priest.
This next chapter is a penitent confession of the king, and the strangest . . . that ever was auricular.
--Milton. Recognized by the ear; known by the sense of hearing; as, auricular evidence. ``Auricular assurance.''
--Shak.Received by the ear; known by report. ``Auricular traditions.''
--Bacon.-
(Anat.) Pertaining to the auricles of the heart.
Auricular finger, the little finger; so called because it can be readily introduced into the ear passage. [1913 Webster] ||
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1540s, "auditory" (originally of confessions), from Medieval Latin auricularis, from Latin auricula (see auricle). Meaning "pertaining to the ear" is from 1640s.
Wiktionary
a. 1 Of or pertaining to the ear 2 Of or pertaining to the sense of hearing 3 Told in the ear, i. e., told privately; as, auricular confession to the priest. 4 Recognized by the ear; known by the sense of hearing; as, auricular evidence. 5 Received by the ear; known by report. 6 (context anatomy English) Pertaining to the auricles of the heart. n. The little finger.
WordNet
adj. of or relating to near the ear [syn: otic]
relating to or perceived by or shaped like the organ of hearing; "my apprehension of words is auricular; I must hear what I read"- George Santayana; "an auricular confession"; "an auricular appendage"
pertaining to an auricle of the heart; "auricular fibrillation"
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "auricular".
I felt in that hour a supreme horror for that auricular confession, which is so often such a pit of perdition and supreme misery for the confessor and the penitent.
God that this priest had been the only one whom I have known to be lost through the auricular confession!
I have heard the confessions of more than 200 priests, and, to say the truth, as God knows it, I must declare that only twenty-one had not to weep over the secret or public sins committed through the irresistibly corrupting influences of auricular confession!
Rome to restore the auricular confession, with what a storm of holy indignation you would defeat their plans!
Roman Catholic priest is preaching on the divine institution of auricular confession.
God, infallible witnesses to tell to the world that auricular confession is nothing else than a snare to the confessor and his dupes.
Yes, those Bulls of the popes are an irrefragable testimony that auricular confession is the most powerful invention of the devil to corrupt the heart, pollute the body, and damn the soul of the priest and his female penitent!
Well, here is an undeniable, a public fact, which is connected with a thousand collateral ones to prove that auricular confession is the most powerful engine of demoralization which the world has ever seen.
Pagan nations have not known any institution so depraving as Auricular Confession!
I do not need to say that the pleasure of seeing those dear and lovely little ones was much marred by the secret though sure knowledge I had that the three youngest were the fruits of the unspeakable depravity of auricular confession in the higher ranks of society.
If it were a crime, punishable by law, to present those questions in a book, is it not a crime far more punishable by law to present those very things to married and unmarried women through the auricular confession?
Latin peruse the extracts I give from Bishop Kenrick, Debreyne, Burchard, Dens or Liguori, and the most incredulous will learn for themselves that the world, even in the darkest ages of old paganism, has never seen anything so infamous and degrading as auricular confession.
Gospel of Christ, as the history of the first ten centuries of Christianity, is the witness that auricular confession and absolution are nothing else but a sacrilegious as well as a most stupendous imposture.
Peace with Auricular Confession is surely the most cruel sarcasm ever uttered in human language.
A terrible example of the auricular confession depravity has just occurred in my own family.