Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of a body or school in the Roman Catholic Church, prominent in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, holding the doctrines of Cornelius Jansen. See also Old Catholics , under catholic.
  • noun In the eighteenth century, a garment, part of a garment, or a fashion, supposed to be expressive of severity of manners: in allusion to the Jansenists of Port Royal, Thus, a sleeve covering the whole arm was called a Jansenist.
  • Of or pertaining to the Jansenists.
  • Noting a style in decoration, especially in bookbinding, characterized by extreme plainness: especially adapted to levant morocco and other materials which present beautiful surfaces.

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

  • noun (Eccl. Hist.) A follower of Cornelius Jansen, a Roman Catholic bishop of Ypres, in Flanders, in the 17th century, who taught certain doctrines denying free will and the possibility of resisting divine grace.

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

  • noun an advocate of Jansenism

Etymologies

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Examples

  • “The woman who comes into the house of a widower, the minister who steps into the place of a statesman in disgrace, the molinist bishop who gets hold of the diocese of a jansenist bishop ” none of these people cause more trouble than the intruding scarlet has caused to me.

    Diderot and the Encyclopaedists Morley, John, 1838-1923 1905

  • "The woman who comes into the house of a widower, the minister who steps into the place of a statesman in disgrace, the molinist bishop who gets hold of the diocese of a jansenist bishop -- none of these people cause more trouble than the intruding scarlet has caused to me.

    Diderot and the Encyclopædists (Vol 1 of 2) John Morley 1880

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  • "The woman who comes into the house of a widower, the minister who steps into the place of a statesman in disgrace, the molinist bishop who gets hold of the diocese of a jansenist bishop -- none of these people cause more trouble than the intruding scarlet has caused to me."

    A woman who comes into the house of a widower? Really?

    Intruding scarlet?

    Endless woman-shaming...

    April 20, 2023