HEATHEN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does heathen mean? 

• HEATHEN (noun)
  The noun HEATHEN has 1 sense:

1. a person who does not acknowledge your god

  Familiarity information: HEATHEN used as a noun is very rare.

• HEATHEN (adjective)
  The adjective HEATHEN has 1 sense:

1. not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam

  Familiarity information: HEATHEN used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HEATHEN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who does not acknowledge your god

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

gentile; heathen; infidel; pagan

Hypernyms ("heathen" is a kind of...):

nonreligious person (a person who does not manifest devotion to a deity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "heathen"):

paynim (a heathen; a person who is not a Christian (especially a Muslim))

idol worshiper; idolater; idoliser; idolizer (a person who worships idols)

Derivation:

heathen (not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam)

• HEATHEN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not acknowledging the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam

Synonyms:

ethnic; heathen; heathenish; pagan

Similar:

irreligious (hostile or indifferent to religion)

Derivation:

heathen (a person who does not acknowledge your god)

 Context examples 

“Yes,” added the other; “and of the Roman emperors as low as Severus; besides a great deal of the heathen mythology, and all the metals, semi-metals, planets, and distinguished philosophers.”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“Methinks that we could not do anything more pleasing to Our Lady than to drive the heathen Moors out of the country.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"And unfortunately, all the missionaries are off among the heathen, so there are none left at home to break those old images, Mr. Vanderwater and Mr. Praps."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I made the captain a very low bow, and then, turning to the Dutchman, said, “I was sorry to find more mercy in a heathen, than in a brother christian.”

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Teachers, you must watch her: keep your eyes on her movements, weigh well her words, scrutinise her actions, punish her body to save her soul: if, indeed, such salvation be possible, for (my tongue falters while I tell it) this girl, this child, the native of a Christian land, worse than many a little heathen who says its prayers to Brahma and kneels before Juggernaut—this girl is—a liar!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Don't be affronted, said she, laughing, but it does put me in mind of some of the old heathen heroes, who, after performing great exploits in a foreign land, offered sacrifices to the gods on their safe return.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

In the long lists by the Garonne on the landward side of the northern gate there had been many a strange combat, when the Teutonic knight, fresh from the conquest of the Prussian heathen, ran a course against the knight of Calatrava, hardened by continual struggle against the Moors, or cavaliers from Portugal broke a lance with Scandinavian warriors from the further shore of the great Northern Ocean.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I tell you, sir, that my ship is over light and over frail for such work, and it will but end in our having our throats cut, or being sold as slaves to the Barbary heathen.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Whatever it was, he was ready for it, whether it were to hold the lists in the court of the King of Tartary, to carry a cartel to the Sultan of Baghdad, or to serve a term against the wild heathen of Prussia.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)