CHRISTEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does christen mean? 

• CHRISTEN (verb)
  The verb CHRISTEN has 1 sense:

1. administer baptism to

  Familiarity information: CHRISTEN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHRISTEN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they christen    ... he / she / it christens   
Past simple: christened   
Past participle: christened   
-ing form: christening   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Administer baptism to

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

baptise; baptize; christen

Context example:

The parents had the child baptized

Hypernyms (to "christen" is one way to...):

be known as; call; know as; name (assign a specified (usually proper) proper name to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody something

Sentence example:

They christen him "Bobby"

Derivation:

christening (giving a Christian name at baptism)

 Context examples 

Although the little girl was very pretty, she was so weak and small that they thought she could not live; but they said she should at once be christened.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Laurie had christened it, saying it was highly appropriate to the gentle lovers who 'went on together like a pair of turtledoves, with first a bill and then a coo'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Now, what a ship was christened, so let her stay, I says.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Yes; nearly five years since to Robert Leaven, the coachman; and I've a little girl besides Bobby there, that I've christened Jane.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Humphrey Van Weyden, “the cold-blooded fish,” the “emotionless monster,” the “analytical demon,” of Charley Furuseth’s christening, in love!

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The name makes me think of poor Isabella; for she was very near being christened Catherine after her grandmama.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Elizabeth was chiefly struck by his extraordinary deference for Lady Catherine, and his kind intention of christening, marrying, and burying his parishioners whenever it were required.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

By my troth, young sir, he said, you are as long in the face as the devil at a christening, and I cannot marvel at it, for I have sailed these waters since I was as high as this whinyard, and yet I never saw more sure promise of an evil night.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Through Hawke Stone and Benbow Stone we came down to my father, Anson Stone, who in his turn christened me Rodney, at the parish church of St. Thomas at Portsmouth in the year of grace 1786.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I'll have her christened again.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)