Fakir

Quick meaning: Fakir is a noun meaning (Islam) A religious mendicant who owns no personal property.

Meaning

(Islam) A religious mendicant who owns no personal property.

More Meanings

1. (Hinduism, more loosely) An ascetic mendicant, especially one who performs feats of endurance or apparent magic.
2. (derogatory) Someone who takes advantage of the gullible through fakery, especially of a spiritual or religious nature.

Example Sentences

From what I hear of him he's a fakir, and I won't encourage him in his attempts to get into society at my expense.

He was, as the undercover agent concluded, a fabulous raconteur or, as one other person summed him up, "a monumental fakir and liar."

The preposterous altruism too![…]Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.

He denounces no one until he has all the damaging facts in hand, very frequently backed up with affidavits. He 'Lawsonized' certain stock jobbers and financial fakirs of London before the Boston advertising man was heard of.

Word Forms

• fakirs
• fakeer

Synonyms for fakir

Depending on context, synonyms include faqir, faquir, fakeer.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include faqir, fakeer, faquir, dervish, faqeer, faqirism.

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