Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A person who has withdrawn from society and lives a solitary existence; a recluse.
- noun A cookie made with molasses, raisins, and nuts.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One who dwells alone, or with but few companions, in a desert or other solitary place, for religious meditation, or from a desire to avoid society. See
anchoret . - noun A beadsman; one bound to pray for another.
- noun In zoology, one of sundry animals of solitary or secluded habits. See the compounds.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A person who retires from society and lives in solitude; a recluse; an anchoret; especially, one who so lives from religious motives.
- noun obsolete A beadsman; one bound to pray for another.
- noun (Cookery) A spiced molasses cookie, often containing chopped raisins and nuts.
- noun (Zoöl.) a marine decapod crustacean of the family
Paguridæ . The species are numerous, and belong to many genera. Called alsosoldier crab . The hermit crabs usually occupy the dead shells of various univalve mollusks. SeeIllust. ofCommensal . - noun (Zoöl.) an American thrush (
Turdus Pallasii ), with retiring habits, but having a sweet song. - noun (Zoöl.) a California wood warbler (
Dendroica occidentalis ), having the head yellow, the throat black, and the back gray, with black streaks.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A religious
recluse ; someone who lives alone for religious reasons; aneremite . - noun A
recluse ; someone who lives alone and shuns human companionship. - noun A spiced cookie made with
molasses , raisins, and nuts.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun one retired from society for religious reasons
- noun one who lives in solitude
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The Underneath acknowledges that the hermit is evil.
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A certain hermit worshipped on a certain mountain, whither resorted a pair of pigeons; and the worshipper was wont to make two parts of his daily bread, — And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
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Then she called the hermit: Sir Ulfin, I am a gentlewoman that would speak with the knight which is with you.
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Jabaster, too, realizes the need for such a balance although he himself has lived in hermit-like, mystical isolation, apparently only awaiting the arrival of the deliverer.
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"Are you the man they call the hermit of the island?" asked Harry.
The Young Oarsmen of Lakeview Ralph Bonehill
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Then she called the hermit: Sir Ulfin, I am a gentlewoman that would speak with the knight which is with you.
Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) Thomas Malory Jean Froissart
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Then she called the hermit: Sir Ulfin, I am a gentlewoman that would speak with the knight which is with you.
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'At any time the word hermit was enough to transport him.'
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A writer in the "Atlantic" [1] gravely tells us the wood thrush is sometimes called the hermit, and then, after describing the song of the hermit with great beauty and correctness, coolly ascribes it to the veery!
In the Catskills Selections from the Writings of John Burroughs John Burroughs 1879
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'At any time the word hermit was enough to transport him.'
Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study in Human Nature William James 1876
oroboros commented on the word hermit
Even hermits get to dance; that's why your brain HAS a right and left foot.
(One guy would hum to himself:
"Ho, ho,
Where 'er I go,
I join myself
Out on the floor.")
--Jan Cox
April 20, 2007