Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A woman who has retired into seclusion for religious reasons.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A female anchoret.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A female anchoret.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A female
anchorite . A woman who chooses to withdraw from the world to live a solitary life of prayer and contemplation. - noun informal an
anchorwoman
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Whitby being one of the oldest and grandest foundations was sure to be inaccessible to a high-born but unportioned girl, and Grisell in her sense of loneliness saw nothing before her but to become an anchoress, that is to say, a female hermit, such as generally lived in strict seclusion under shelter of the Church.
Grisly Grisell Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862
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"anchoress," seldom or never left the walls of her cell, a little house of two or three rooms built generally against the church wall, so that one of her windows could open into the church, and another, veiled by a curtain, looked on to the outer world, where she held converse with and gave counsel to those who came to see her.
Mysticism in English Literature Caroline F. E. Spurgeon 1905
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I was told that in order to protect herself, Jane became an anchoress.
The Exorsistah: X Returns Claudia Mair Burney 2010
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In “The Book of Encouragement and Consolation,” this young anchoress, who is only known through a letter she may have never received, and the voice of a man, Goscelin, whose love for her may have been implicated in her removal from St Bertin to Wilton, is given her own chance to respond.
Archive 2008-04-01 Mary Kate Hurley 2008
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And did she find that place, too, already deserted, and think of the anchoress as her next hope?
His Disposition 2010
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In “The Book of Encouragement and Consolation,” this young anchoress, who is only known through a letter she may have never received, and the voice of a man, Goscelin, whose love for her may have been implicated in her removal from St Bertin to Wilton, is given her own chance to respond.
Dreaming Language Mary Kate Hurley 2008
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An anchoress was dead in the eyes of the world — she would have been given Extreme Unction before she was enclosed — and now, as St. Paul would say, her life is “hidden with Christ in God.”
Archive 2009-06-01 Michelle 2009
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An anchoress was dead in the eyes of the world — she would have been given Extreme Unction before she was enclosed — and now, as St. Paul would say, her life is “hidden with Christ in God.”
Column: Stretched between heaven and earth Michelle 2009
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Previously I'd never even heard of the term, anchoress.
Blast from the Past: Loaded Questions with Brenda Rickman Vantrease, author of "The Illuminator" 2008
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An anchorite or anchoress, take your pick--I prefer the non-gendered term is a nun, but not really.
Rules for Anchorites yuki_onna 2008
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