Monk
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Pronunciation /mʌŋk/ · Part of speech noun
Quick meaning: Monk is a noun meaning A male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service.
Meaning
A male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service.
More Meanings
- In earlier usage, an eremite or hermit devoted to solitude, as opposed to a cenobite, who lived communally.
- (printing, archaic) An inkblot.
- A South American monkey (Pithecia monachus); also applied to other species, as Cebus xanthosternos.
- The bullfinch, common bullfinch, European bullfinch, or Eurasian bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula).
- (slang) Someone who leads an isolated life; a loner, a hermit.
- (slang) An unmarried man who does not have sexual relationships.
- (slang) A judge.
Example Sentences
Good people, if you're ever short of a job, don't take up monking for a living.
"Ah!" she cried, "thou art the prettiest little monk that ever monked it in this blessed, amorous town of Constance!"
Many a scholar, making wings of candlewicks to flap away old darkness, monked his life to fasting long while feasting upon new light.
In clusters on the plain, like cowlless monks at matins, sat the vultures that had settled on the corpse of the hyena impaled by the female rhino […]
Word Forms
- monks
- moncke
- monking
- monked
Synonyms for monk
Depending on context, synonyms include monastic.
Related Words
Related dictionary entries include monastic, fra, friar, priest, guru, man.
Related Dictionary Tools
Sources & Attribution
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.