Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not having experienced sexual intercourse; virginal.
  • adjective Abstaining from sexual relations that are not sanctioned by certain religious laws or moral principles.
  • adjective Abstaining from sexual relations; celibate.
  • adjective Not involving or suggestive of sexual desire or indecency.
  • adjective Pure or simple in design or style; austere.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To chasten; discipline; punish; chastise. See chasten and chastise, which have taken the place of this verb.
  • To reduce to submission; tame.
  • To bring or keep under control; restrain, as the passions.
  • Possessing chastity or sexual purity; continent; virtuous; pure.
  • Celibate; unmarried.
  • Free from obscenity or impurity: as, chaste conversation.
  • In a figurative sense: As applied to language and literary style, free from uncouth or equivocal words and phrases, and from affected or extravagant expressions; not affected or grandiloquent.
  • In art, free from meretricious ornament or affectation; severely simple.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Pure from unlawful sexual intercourse; virtuous; continent.
  • adjective Pure in thought and act; innocent; free from lewdness and obscenity, or indecency in act or speech; modest.
  • adjective Pure in design and expression; correct; free from barbarisms or vulgarisms; refined; simple.
  • adjective obsolete Unmarried.
  • adjective Same as Agnus castus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective abstaining from sexual intercourse, celibate
  • adjective virginal, innocent, having had no sexual experience
  • adjective simple, austere, undecorative
  • adjective modest, decent, morally pure

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective abstaining from unlawful sexual intercourse
  • adjective morally pure (especially not having experienced sexual intercourse)
  • adjective pure and simple in design or style

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin castus; see kes- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French chaste ("morally pure"), from Latin castus ("pure").

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Examples

  • I know that the current view of sex is unbridled recreation, but that fact is the very reason why the word chaste is quasi obsolete and often equated with marital infidelity.

    The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004

  • I know that the current view of sex is unbridled recreation, but that fact is the very reason why the word chaste is quasi obsolete and often equated with marital infidelity.

    The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004

  • Pallotti offers this bit of ecclesiastical hokum as it if it made perfect, pious sense: the point of the program isn't celibacy "as much as creating what they call a chaste kind of life."

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com John Stoehr 2012

  • Pallotti offers this bit of ecclesiastical hokum as it if it made perfect, pious sense: the point of the program isn't celibacy "as much as creating what they call a chaste kind of life."

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com John Stoehr 2012

  • Pallotti offers this bit of ecclesiastical hokum as it if it made perfect, pious sense: the point of the program isn't celibacy "as much as creating what they call a chaste kind of life."

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com John Stoehr 2012

  • So as not to disturb this important natural phase of growth, parents will recognize that prudent formation in chaste love during this period should be indirect, in preparation for puberty, when direct information will be necessary. [more ...]

    Archive 2008-04-01 2008

  • So as not to disturb this important natural phase of growth, parents will recognize that prudent formation in chaste love during this period should be indirect, in preparation for puberty, when direct information will be necessary. [more ...]

    Kung Fu Night! Kill Zone 2008

  • The girls try to remain chaste, but the boys have sex with them anyway: Rape.

    Matthew Yglesias » Purity Ball Fun 2007

  • How come the only organ the left insists be chaste is the lung?

    Archive 2004-06-01 2004

  • How come the only organ the left insists be chaste is the lung?

    Medpundit 2004

Comments

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  • Plath citations: see note at swan.

    March 31, 2008

  • last night I dreamt that I was chaste

    November 9, 2009

  • "He kissed my cheek in a chaste, friend-of-the-boyfriend way." -Club Dead, by Charlaine Harris

    February 5, 2011