JOSEPH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

• JOSEPH (noun)
  The noun JOSEPH has 3 senses:

1. leader of the Nez Perce in their retreat from United States troops (1840-1904)

2. (Old Testament) the 11th son of Jacob and one of the 12 patriarchs of Israel; Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors, which made his brothers jealous and they sold him into slavery in Egypt

3. (New Testament) husband of Mary and (in Christian belief) the foster father of Jesus

  Familiarity information: JOSEPH used as a noun is uncommon.

• JOSEPH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Leader of the Nez Perce in their retreat from United States troops (1840-1904)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Chief Joseph; Joseph

Instance hypernyms:

Nez Perce (a member of a tribe of the Shahaptian people living on the pacific coast)

Indian chief; Indian chieftain (the leader of a group of Native Americans)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(Old Testament) the 11th son of Jacob and one of the 12 patriarchs of Israel; Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors, which made his brothers jealous and they sold him into slavery in Egypt

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

patriarch (any of the early biblical characters regarded as fathers of the human race)

Domain category:

Old Testament (the collection of books comprising the sacred scripture of the Hebrews and recording their history as the chosen people; the first half of the Christian Bible)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(New Testament) husband of Mary and (in Christian belief) the foster father of Jesus

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

carpenter (a woodworker who makes or repairs wooden objects)

Domain category:

New Testament (the collection of books of the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the Pauline and other epistles, and Revelation; composed soon after Christ's death; the second half of the Christian Bible)

 Context examples 

A moment later the servants’ door was opened, and Mr. Joseph Harrison stepped out into the moonlight.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“The beauty of it is that it’s a recycling system,” said Joseph Woo, senior author of the study.

(Oxygen-Producing Bacteria Could Help Heart Attack Sufferers, VOA News)

"Yes, that was what used to bother Father Joseph, and Brother Dutton," Brissenden replied.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

There are, I pray God and St. Joseph and Ste. Mary, many, many, happy years for you both.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

You must know that my grandfather had two sons—my uncle Elias and my father Joseph.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In 2009, a team led by Dr. Joseph LeDoux of New York University (NYU) developed a way to erase a fear memory in rats without using drugs.

(How Our Memory Works, NIH, US)

A lymphopenic, nondiabetic substrain BB-DR has very low T-cell numbers, depressed B-lymphocyte numbers and a complete absence of peripheral CD8+ T cells characteristics of the susceptible BB strain(Joseph et al 1993).

(BB, Rat Strain, NCI Thesaurus)

I had it, together with this piece of the true rood, from the five-and-twentieth descendant of Joseph of Arimathea, who still lives in Jerusalem alive and well, though latterly much afflicted by boils.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A standardized rating scale originally developed by David A. Karnofsky and Joseph H. Burchenal in 1949 which is used to evaluate the degree to which a patient is functionally impaired.

(Karnofsky Performance Status Scale Questionnaire, NCI Thesaurus)

But Dr. Joseph Su, an NIH expert in diet and cancer, says that direct evidence here is similarly hard to come by.

(Can Chocolate Really Be Good for You?, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)