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Definition of "monkish" []

  • Of, relating to, or characteristic of monks or monasticism. (adjective)
  • Inclined to self-denial; ascetic. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "monkish" in a sentence
  • "I term monkish morality, to remark it by the way, such precepts of ethics, such rules of life as aro4e during the time when the monastic state was held to be the only holy condition of life, the only one well-pleasing to God, and al - most the only, at least the only safe means of becoming happy; when the whole of piety was made to consist in praying and singing, in a so - litary, inactive and contemplative lifci when it TOii."
  • "Zacharias Werner, author of a number of romantic melodramas, the heroes of which are described as monkish ascetics, religious mystics, and "spirits who wander on earth in the guise of harp-players" -- Zacharias Werner also went to Vienna and joined the order of Ligorians."
  • "Esclairmonde -- nay, after every glance towards her -- as though it were a blessed thing to have, like her, chosen the better part; he knew she would approve his resort to the home of piety and learning; he was aware that when with Ralf Percy and the other youths of the Court he was ashamed of his own scrupulousness, and tempted to neglect observances that they might call monkish and unmanly; and he was not at all sure that in face of the enemy a panic might not seize him and disgrace him for ever!"