4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Ascetic \As*cet"ic\a. [Gr. ?, fr. ? to exercise, to practice gymnastics.] Extremely rigid in self-denial and devotions; austere; severe.

The stern ascetic rigor of the Temple discipline. --Sir W. Scott.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Ascetic \As*cet"ic\, noun 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.

I am far from commending those ascetics that take up their quarters in deserts. --Norris.

{Ascetic theology}, the science which treats of the practice of the theological and moral virtues, and the counsels of perfection. --Am. Cyc.

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

ascetic

adjective

1: pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic or the practice of rigorous self-discipline; "ascetic practices" [syn: {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: {ascetical}, {austere}, {spartan}]

noun

1: practices self denial as spiritual discipline [syn: {abstainer}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

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