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friar
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
friar
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Athelstan and Cranston followed him, the friar fascinated by the man's swaying walk.
▪ Perhaps the incident most often recorded of this holy friar is the vision which was accorded him while praying before a crucifix.
▪ The friar could have sworn that Sir John was singing a hymn or a song under his breath.
▪ The friar looked sideways at Cranston and quietly groaned.
▪ The friar took a deep breath and sighed.
▪ The friar walked back up to the Poultry and knocked on the coroner's door.
▪ The friar was up just before dawn and celebrated his Mass, Bonaventure and Benedicta being his only congregation.
▪ The clever friar would sift one fact from another.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
friar

Silversides \Sil"ver*sides`\, n. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of several species of small fishes of the family Atherinid[ae], having a silvery stripe along each side of the body. The common species of the American coast ( Menidia notata) is very abundant. Called also silverside, sand smelt, friar, tailor, and tinker.

Brook silversides (Zo["o]l.), a small fresh-water North American fish ( Labadesthes sicculus) related to the marine silversides.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
friar

late 13c., from Old French frere "brother, friar" (9c., Modern French frère), originally referring to the mendicant orders (Franciscans, Augustines, Dominicans, Carmelites), who reached England early 13c., from Latin frater "brother" (see brother).

Wiktionary
friar

n. 1 A member of a mendicant Christian order such as the Augustinians, Carmelites (white friars), Franciscans (grey friars) or the Dominicans (black friars). 2 (context printing dated English) A white or pale patch on a printed page. 3 An American fish, the silverside.

WordNet
friar

n. a male member of a religious order that originally relied soley on alms [syn: mendicant]

Gazetteer
Wikipedia
Friar

A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded since the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the older monastic orders' allegiance to a single monastery formalized by their vow of stability. The most significant orders of friars are the Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians and Carmelites.

Usage examples of "friar".

I wrote to him and to the friars, and immediately set out, as I told him, almost alone, because all the people were with the Adelantado, and likewise in order to prevent suspicion on his part.

The sermon had at first been entrusted to the Reverend Father Agaric, but, in spite of his merits, he was thought unequal to the occasion in zeal and doctrine, and the eloquent Capuchin friar, who for six months had gone through the barracks preaching against the enemies of God and authority, had been chosen in his place.

Then came archers of the guard, shrill-voiced women of the camp, English pages with their fair skins and blue wondering eyes, dark-robed friars, lounging men-at-arms, swarthy loud-tongued Gascon serving-men, seamen from the river, rude peasants of the Medoc, and becloaked and befeathered squires of the court, all jostling and pushing in an ever-changing, many-colored stream, while English, French, Welsh, Basque, and the varied dialects of Gascony and Guienne filled the air with their babel.

Her ascendancy over the King was attributed to the enchantments and experiments of a Dominican friar, learned in many a cantrip and cabala, whom she entertained in her house, and who had fashioned two pictures of Edward and Alive which, when suffumigated with the incense of mysterious herbs and gums, mandrakes, sweet calamus, caryophylleae, storax, benzoin, and other plants plucked beneath the full moon what time Venus was in ascendant, caused the old King to dote upon this lovely concubine.

Cordiani, being close by the friar, came in for a good share of the liquid-an accident which afforded me the greatest delight.

A few minutes afterwards, a tall Jacobin friar, blind of one eye, called Corsini, whom I had known in Venice, came in and paid me many compliments.

Gozzi, placing implicit confidence in the physician, would not listen to his mother, and did not send for the Jacobin friar.

They did not go, and as he did not care to dismiss them, dinner was served without any place being laid for the friars.

A young monk of the order of the Recollects who called himself Friar Stephano of Belun, and had obtained a free passage from the devout Captain Alban, joined me as we landed and enquired whether I felt sick.

I got to talking with Sir Vladimir and Friar Roman-him what used to be the Goliard poet-along with Ilya, the blacksmith.

I was not yet out of the room when the friar offered his hand to Bettina for her to kiss, and I had the pleasure of seeing her spit upon it.

After supper, accompanied by this lay friar, who had the title of prefect, we all proceeded to the dormitory.

The friar, who had to remain with me four weeks, expected to live at my expense, while, on the contrary, he had been sent by Providence to keep me.

I agreed to meet Friar Stephano at the exchange, and I took the Jew from whom I had hired the furniture, to the convent of the Minims, where I received from Father Lazari ten sequins and the address of the bishop, who, after performing quarantine on the frontiers of Tuscany, had proceeded to Rome, where he would expect me to meet him.

If I had put up with the faults of the friar, if this and if that, and every other if was conjured up to torment my restless and wretched brain.