Crossword clues for postulant
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Postulant \Pos"tu*lant\ (?; 135), n. [F., fr. L. postulans, p. pr. of postulare. See Postulate.] One who makes a request or demand; hence, a candidate.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1759, from French postulant "applicant, candidate," literally "one who asks," from Latin postulantem (nominative postulans), present participle of postulare "to ask, demand" (see postulate (v.)).
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context Christianity English) A person seeking admission to a religious order 2 A person who submits a petition for something; a petitioner.
WordNet
n. one submitting a request or application especially one seeking admission into a religious order
Wikipedia
A postulant (from , to ask) was originally one who makes a request or demand; hence, a candidate. The use of the term is now generally restricted to those asking for admission into a monastery or a religious institute, both before actual admission and for the period of time preceding their admission into the novitiate. Currently, however, common usage terms the person who has not yet been accepted by the institution as an "inquirer" or "observer".
The term is most commonly used in the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion (which includes the Episcopal Church). The Eastern Orthodox Churches uses this term less frequently.
Usage examples of "postulant".
For, as the cat was called by Nature to be an ornithophage, so was Francis called by his own nature hungrily to devour such knowledge as could be taught in those days, and, because there were no schools but the monastic schools, he had donned the habit first of a postulant, later of a novice.
However, the cardinal-superintendent refuses permission unless the postulant can satisfy him that he is capable of supporting a wife.
Yo Hsi's daughter was a postulant of a hermitic order, uninterested in her father's position and power.
Twenty two steps up on the ladder from the bottom, matching the number of Major Arcana of the Tarot, appearing only when the Postulant was returning from his fruitless quest to the oubliette.
They were sometimes given as mementoes to the next of kin of postulants entering the old religious orders.
Under the personal supervision of the Three-Horned Inquisitor and the Patriarch of Pasadena, a devoted band of Familiars and Postulants has traveled from settlement to settlement, making the yearly census.
Awe-inspiring in their chasubles of Anglo-Nubian fur, in their tiaras of gilded horns, Patriarchs and Archimandrites, Presbyters and Postulants stand in two groups at the head of the altar steps, chanting anti-phonally in a high treble to the music of bone recorders and a battery of xylophones.
Then one of the Postulants takes the child out of her arms and holds it up before the Patriarch.
The two Postulants follow, striking at her savagely with their consecrated bulls' pizzles.
Flushed and a little breathless from so unusually strenuous an exercise, the plump young Postulants seize another woman -- a girl this time, frail and slender almost to the point of childishness.
Poole stares after the retreating figures, then glances uneasily at the two Postulants who have been appointed to guard him.
With an expression of disgust, the two Postulants simultaneously spit.
The Postulants look at one another in silence, then simultaneously spit.
There, in the sunshine, a score of Postulants are busily at work, with thread and needle, stitching aprons to waistbands, patches to trouser seats and shirt fronts.
The other postulants are too damn busy, and the trainers are overworked as we well know, and I don't give a damn.