Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To free from ecclesiastical control; give over to laypeople.
- transitive verb To change to lay status; secularize.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To render lay; deprive of a clerical character or relation.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To convert from
church controlled to independent of the church; tosecularize . - verb transitive To
reduce fromclergy tolayman . - verb intransitive To
convert tolay status.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb reduce to lay status
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Only the other day the local authorities were instigated, I know not by whom -- perhaps by the friends of M. Ferry at St. - Dié, which is not very far off -- to "laicize" instruction in Domrémy.
France and the Republic A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 William Henry Hurlbert 1861
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( "Emblematic of this anticlerical mindset was the tendency to" laicize "the names of locations with two words of religious significance, by contracting them into one.
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( "Emblematic of this anticlerical mindset was the tendency to" laicize "the names of locations with two words of religious significance, by contracting them into one.
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( "Emblematic of this anticlerical mindset was the tendency to" laicize "the names of locations with two words of religious significance, by contracting them into one.
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Teresa Kettelkamp, a former Illinois police colonel and executive director of the U.S. bishops 'Secretariat for Children and Young People, said to laicize or not is a tough call and dioceses are feeling their way through the issue.
Abusive priests: To defrock or not? U.S. Catholics debate 2010
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"It seems a quick answer 'We'll laicize him and kick him out of the church,'" Kettlekamp said.
Abusive priests: To defrock or not? U.S. Catholics debate 2010
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The Church didn't even laicize him until almost 30 years later!
Amy Berg: Deliver Us From Evil: A Letter to the Catholic Church Amy Berg 2010
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But in recent times, especially in France, the word lay has assumed a decidedly anti-clerical and even anti-religious meaning, which has extended also to the derivatives laicize and laicization.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8: Infamy-Lapparent 1840-1916 1913
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To laicize, then, is to give this lay character to whatever had not previously had it — or, at least, not entirely.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8: Infamy-Lapparent 1840-1916 1913
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But since 1866 there has formed within the state Church a "progressive party", whose purpose is to abandon all symbols and to laicize the church.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913
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