Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The principles and practices of an ascetic; extreme self-denial and austerity.
- noun The doctrine that the ascetic life releases the soul from bondage to the body and permits union with the divine.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The life or practice of an ascetic; the principles and historic course of the ascetics.
- noun In theology, the theory or systematic exposition of the means, whether negative, as self-denial and abstinence, or positive, as the exercise of natural and Christian virtues, by which a complete conformity with the divine will may be attained. See
ascetical theology , under ascetical.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The condition, practice, or mode of life, of ascetics.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
principles andpractices of anascetic ;extreme self-denial andausterity .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures)
- noun the doctrine that through renunciation of worldly pleasures it is possible to achieve a high spiritual or intellectual state
- noun rigorous self-denial and active self-restraint
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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The word asceticism comes from the Greek askesis which means practice, bodily exercise, and more especially, atheletic training.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913
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But it stifles desire only for a greater ultimate good; it rejects that needless repression of a part of the self which we call asceticism, and an undue subordination of self to others.
Problems of Conduct Durant Drake
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Mrs Browning complained to her husband of what she terms the asceticism of Easter Day, the second part of his volume of 1850; his reply was that it stated “one side of the question.”
Robert Browning Dowden, Edward 1904
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The word "asceticism" goes back to the Greek for "athletic training," and the longing to be free from the prison of selfishness, has sent many people either literally or figuratively into the "desert" looking for that back against the wall urgency that is so critical to creativity.
Forbes.com: News August Turak 2011
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The day for asceticism is gone, or shall we say the night?
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Though she had no clear idea what was meant by the word asceticism, she too was of opinion that it would be no harm for dear Yasha to take a little recreation, to see people, and to show himself.
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The records of those rough, warm, full-blooded times come with a heady flavour and an old-world tang to the thin asceticism of to-day.
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Yet it seems strange to hear Savanarola praised in a poem in which asceticism is condemned.
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I know that to use the word asceticism of one's daily practice is to incur the judgment of all those whom the world calls good fellows, whose motto is live and let live, or any other aphorism of convenient and universal remission.
Apologia Diffidentis 1905
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Though she had no clear idea what was meant by the word asceticism, she too was of opinion that it would be no harm for dear
Dream Tales and Prose Poems Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev 1850
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