cleric

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cler·ic

(klĕr′ĭk)

A member of the clergy.

[Late Latin clēricus; see clerk.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

cleric

(ˈklɛrɪk)

(Ecclesiastical Terms) a member of the clergy

[C17: from Church Latin clēricus priest, clerk]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cler•ic

(ˈklɛr ɪk)

n.

1. a member of the clergy.

2. clerics, (used with a pl. v.) small-sized reading glasses, usu. rimless or with a thin metal frame.

adj.

3. pertaining to the clergy; clerical.

[1615–25; < Late Latin clēricus priest < Greek klērikós=klêr(os) lot, allotment + -ikos -ic]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

cleric - a clergyman or other person in religious orders

churchman, ecclesiastic, divine

clergyman, man of the cloth, reverend - a member of the clergy and a spiritual leader of the Christian Church

ordainer - a cleric who ordains; a cleric who admits someone to holy orders

pardoner - a medieval cleric who raised money for the church by selling papal indulgences

pluralist - a cleric who holds more than one benefice at a time

cleric

noun

A person ordained for service in a Christian church:

churchman, churchwoman, clergyman, clergywoman, clerical, clerk, divine, ecclesiastic, minister, parson, preacher.

Informal: reverend.

Translations

pappi

cleric

[ˈklerɪk] N → eclesiástico m, clérigo m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

cleric

[ˈklɛrɪk] n → ecclésiastique m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

cleric

n → Geistliche(r) m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

cleric

[ˈklɛrɪk] n → ecclesiastico

References in classic literature ?

Angel's wife felt almost as if she had been hounded up that hill like a scorned thing by those--to her--superfine clerics. Innocently as the slight had been inflicted, it was somewhat unfortunate that she had encountered the sons and not the father, who, despite his narrowness, was far less starched and ironed than they, and had to the full the gift of charity.

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It was originally intended for the sons of poor and deserving clerics and laics, but many of the noble governors of the Institution, with an enlarged and rather capricious benevolence, selected all sorts of objects for their bounty.

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Gaston Cleric had arrived in Lincoln only a few weeks earlier than I, to begin his work as head of the Latin Department.

Cleric's doctor advised against his going back to New England, and, except for a few weeks in Colorado, he, too, was in Lincoln all that summer.

Cleric had ordered it for me when he was sending for books from abroad.

I believe that Gaston Cleric narrowly missed being a great poet, and I have sometimes thought that his bursts of imaginative talk were fatal to his poetic gift.

Cleric went through canto after canto of the `Commedia,' repeating the discourse between Dante and his `sweet teacher,' while his cigarette burned itself out unheeded between his long fingers.

Although I admired scholarship so much in Cleric, I was not deceived about myself; I knew that I should never be a scholar.

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A conspicuous, and it is hope not unpleasant, feature of the book is its abundant illustrative quotations from eminent poets, chief of whom is that learned and ingenius cleric, Father Gassalasca Jape, S.J., whose lines bear his initials.

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"A bishop, my friend, must sacrifice more to appearance than a simple cleric."

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"This young James Todhunter," continued the cleric, "is a very decent man so far as I know; but then nobody knows very much.

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In his impatience he lost the equally elaborate answer of the tall cleric, and when he listened again it was again Father Brown who was speaking: