ascetic
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
ascetic
adj 1: pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic or the
practice of rigorous self-discipline; "ascetic practices"
[syn: {ascetic}, {ascetical}]
2: practicing great self-denial; "Be systematically
ascetic...do...something for no other reason than that you
would rather not do it"- William James; "a desert nomad's
austere life"; "a spartan diet"; "a spartan existence" [syn:
{ascetic}, {ascetical}, {austere}, {spartan}]
n 1: someone who practices self denial as a spiritual discipline
[syn: {abstainer}, {ascetic}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Ascetic \As*cet"ic\, n.
In the early church, one who devoted himself to a solitary
and contemplative life, characterized by devotion, extreme
self-denial, and self-mortification; a hermit; a recluse;
hence, one who practices extreme rigor and self-denial in
religious things.
[1913 Webster]
I am far from commending those ascetics that take up
their quarters in deserts. --Norris.
[1913 Webster]
{Ascetic theology}, the science which treats of the practice
of the theological and moral virtues, and the counsels of
perfection. --Am. Cyc.
[1913 Webster]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
221 Moby Thesaurus words for "ascetic":
Albigensian, Apostolic, Apostolici, Catharist, Diogenes, Encratic,
Encratite, Franciscan, Hieronymian, Hieronymite, Lenten,
Pythagorean, Pythagorist, Rechabite, Sabbatarian, Shaker, Spartan,
Stoic, Timon of Athens, Trappist, Waldensian, abbacomes, abbot,
abstainer, abstemious, abstinent, anchoress, anchorite, anchoritic,
apologetic, astringent, atoning, austere, bald, banian, bare,
beadsman, bedridden invalid, bhikshu, brother, caloyer, candid,
celibate, cenobite, chaste, cleansing, cloistered monk,
closet cynic, common, commonplace, compensational, compensatory,
continent, conventual, conventual prior, dervish, desert fathers,
desert saints, direct, disciplined, dry, dull, dwarfed, dwarfish,
eremite, eremitic, exiguous, expiatory, fakir, flagellant,
forbearing, frank, friar, frugal, fruitarian, grand prior,
gymnosophist, hermit, hermitess, hieromonach, homebody, homely,
homespun, hydropot, impoverished, invalid, isolationist, jejune,
lay abbot, lay brother, lean, limited, loner, lustral,
lustrational, lustrative, marabout, matter-of-fact, meager, mean,
mendicant, miserly, monastic, monk, mortified, narrow, natural,
neat, nephalist, nephalistic, niggardly, on the wagon, open,
outcast, palmer, paltry, pariah, parsimonious, penitential,
piacular, pilgrim, pillar saint, pillarist, plain, plain-speaking,
plain-spoken, poor, prior, propitiatory, prosaic, prosing, prosy,
puny, pure, purgative, purgatorial, purifying, puritan,
puritanical, reclamatory, recluse, recompensing, redeeming,
redemptive, redressing, religieux, religious, reparative,
reparatory, repentant, repenting, restitutional, restitutive,
restitutory, restrained, righting, rigoristic, rustic, sannyasi,
satisfactional, scant, scanty, schooled, scrawny, scrimp, scrimpy,
seclusionist, self-abasing, self-abnegating, self-denying,
self-forgetful, selfless, severe, sexually abstinent, shut-in,
simple, simple-speaking, skimp, skimpy, slender, slight, slim,
small, sober, solitaire, solitary, solitudinarian, spare, sparing,
squaring, stark, starvation, stay-at-home, stern, stingy, stinted,
straightforward, straitened, stunted, stylite, subsistence,
sworn off, teetotal, teetotaler, teetotalist, thin, trained,
unadorned, unaffected, unimaginative, unnourishing, unnutritious,
unpoetical, unvarnished, vegetarian, water-drinker, watered,
watery, wedded to poverty, yogi, yogin
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