Definition of "friar" []

• A member of a usually mendicant Roman Catholic order. (noun)

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.

• "Br. Benedict Joseph was solemnly professed as a Capuchin friar on September 1, 1955."
• "(The "bad Spanish friar" is a standard villain in our patriotic literature.)"
• "Brodrick, himself a former Augustinian friar, is a master of precision plotting, morally complex characterization, and crisp historical re-creation."