MENDICANT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does mendicant mean? 

• MENDICANT (noun)
  The noun MENDICANT has 2 senses:

1. a male member of a religious order that originally relied solely on alms

2. a pauper who lives by begging

  Familiarity information: MENDICANT used as a noun is rare.

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

1. practicing beggary

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• MENDICANT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A male member of a religious order that originally relied solely on alms

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

friar; mendicant

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

religious (a member of a religious order who is bound by vows of poverty and chastity and obedience)

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

Carmelite; White Friar (a Roman Catholic friar wearing the white cloak of the Carmelite order; mendicant preachers)

Black Friar; Blackfriar; Dominican; friar preacher (a Roman Catholic friar wearing the black mantle of the Dominican order)

Franciscan; Grey Friar (a Roman Catholic friar wearing the grey habit of the Franciscan order)

Augustinian (a Roman Catholic friar or monk belonging to one of the Augustinian monastic orders)

Derivation:

mendicant (practicing beggary)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A pauper who lives by begging

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

beggar; mendicant

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

pauper (a person who is very poor)

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

beggarman (a man who is a beggar)

beggarwoman (a woman who is a beggar)

cadger; mooch; moocher; scrounger (someone who mooches or cadges (tries to get something free))

panhandler (a beggar who approaches strangers asking for money)

sannyasi; sannyasin; sanyasi (a Hindu religious mendicant)

Instance hyponyms:

Lazarus (the diseased beggar in Jesus' parable of the rich man and the beggar)

Derivation:

mendicant (practicing beggary)

• MENDICANT (adjective)

Comparative: mendicanter   
Superlative: mendicantest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Practicing beggary

Context example:

mendicant friars

Similar:

beseeching; imploring; pleading (begging)

Derivation:

mendicancy (a solicitation for money or food (especially in the street by an apparently penniless person))

mendicant (a pauper who lives by begging)

mendicant (a male member of a religious order that originally relied solely on alms)

 Context examples 

I dared to put off the mendicant—to resume my natural manner and character.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Swiftly as he went, however, he could not escape the curse of the four blessed evangelists which the mendicant howled behind him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They saw him slouch for'ard after breakfast, and, like a mendicant, with outstretched palm, accost a sailor.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

A shock of orange hair, a pale face disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be thrown at him by the passers-by.

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