Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A teacher or student of morals and moral problems.
- noun One who follows a system of moral principles.
- noun One who is unduly concerned with the morals of others.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who teaches morals; a writer or lecturer on ethics; one who inculcates moral duties.
- noun One who practises moral as distinguished from religious duties; a merely moral as distinguished from a religious person.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who moralizes; one who teaches or animadverts upon the duties of life; a writer of essays intended to correct vice and inculcate moral duties.
- noun One who practices moral duties; a person who lives in conformity with moral rules; one of correct deportment and dealings with his fellow-creatures; -- sometimes used in contradistinction to one whose life is controlled by religious motives.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun pejorative One who drives all decisions on perceived
morals , especially one who enforces them withcensorship . - noun obsolete A teacher of morals.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun someone who demands exact conformity to rules and forms
- noun a philosopher who specializes in morals and moral problems
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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The moralist is the writer who has a "moral design" on literature -- who sees it as an forum for moral discourse more than as an aesthetic form -- or who wishes to create a moral "design" in works of fiction or poetry in the guise of, or in substitution for, aesthetic design.
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Fear, fury, desire, shame -- the whole philosophy of the religious moralist is simply an abstraction, systematisation and indoctrination of emotional reactions as so-called moral principles.
Duncan Does Deus Hal Duncan 2006
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Bahaha, the republican moralist is making fun of others being elitist?
Think Progress » O’Reilly Says CAP Is “A Very Well-Oiled, Effective Character Assassination Machine” 2005
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The reign of the moralist is the reign of the mob, or of some Jack-in-office.
Later Articles and Reviews W.B. Yeats 2000
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It is the teachers 'fault; they set themselves up as moralists, and a moralist is a positive danger to any child.
A Dominie in Doubt Alexander Sutherland Neill 1928
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Mr. More is not, like Sainte-Beuve, primarily interested in psychology or in human beings; Mr. More is primarily a moralist, which is a worthy and serious thing to be.
Imperfect Critics Thomas Stearns 1920
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The moralist is the man who shows life as it is, with its profound lessons of secret expiation which are everywhere imprinted.
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 5 Lucia Isabella Gilbert Runkle 1864
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As I had not been so well known as a moralist, and had not the prepossessing advantage of a bald, benevolent head, nothing was done for me, and I was turned once more on the wide world, to moralize on the vicissitudes of fortune.
Paul Clifford — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838
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As I had not been so well known as a moralist, and had not the prepossessing advantage of a bald, benevolent head, nothing was done for me, and I was turned once more on the wide world, to moralize on the vicissitudes of fortune.
Paul Clifford — Volume 02 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838
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"I would call it moralist hysteria, I would call it religious myopia," she said.
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