Definitions

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

  • noun One of the Roman Catholics in England who incurred legal and social penalties in the 1500s and afterward for refusing to attend services of the Church of England.
  • noun A dissenter; a nonconformist.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Obstinate in refusal; specifically, in English history, refusing to attend divine service in Anglican churches, or to acknowledge the ecclesiastical supremacy of the crown.
  • noun One obstinate in refusing; one who will not conform to general opinion or practice.
  • noun Specifically, in English history, one who refused to attend divine worship in Anglican churches, or to acknowledge the ecclesiastical supremacy of the crown.

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

  • adjective Obstinate in refusal; specifically, in English history, refusing to acknowledge the supremacy of the king in the churc, or to conform to the established rites of the church.
  • noun One who is obstinate in refusal; one standing out stubbornly against general practice or opinion.
  • noun (Eng. Hist.) A person who refuses to acknowledge the supremacy of the king in matters of religion.
  • noun One who refuses communion with the Church of England; a nonconformist.

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

  • noun historical someone refusing to attend Church of England services, between the sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries
  • noun anyone refusing to submit to authority or regulation
  • adjective pertaining to a recusant or to recusancy

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

  • adjective (of Catholics) refusing to attend services of the Church of England
  • adjective refusing to submit to authority
  • noun someone who refuses to conform to established standards of conduct

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin recusare ‘refuse’.

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