Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Morally pure in thought or conduct; decent and modest.
- adj. Not having experienced sexual intercourse; virginal.
- adj. Abstaining from unlawful sexual intercourse.
- adj. Abstaining from all sexual intercourse; celibate.
- adj. Pure or simple in design or style; austere.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Possessing chastity or sexual purity; continent; virtuous; pure.
- Celibate; unmarried.
- Free from obscenity or impurity: as, chaste conversation.
- In a figurative sense: As applied to language and literary style, free from uncouth or equivocal words and phrases, and from affected or extravagant expressions; not affected or grandiloquent.
- In art, free from meretricious ornament or affectation; severely simple.
- To chasten; discipline; punish; chastise. See chasten and chastise, which have taken the place of this verb.
- To reduce to submission; tame.
- To bring or keep under control; restrain, as the passions.
Wiktionary
- adj. abstaining from sexual intercourse, celibate
- adj. virginal, innocent, having had no sexual experience
- adj. simple, austere, undecorative
- adj. modest, decent, morally pure
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Pure from unlawful sexual intercourse; virtuous; continent.
- adj. Pure in thought and act; innocent; free from lewdness and obscenity, or indecency in act or speech; modest.
- adj. Pure in design and expression; correct; free from barbarisms or vulgarisms; refined; simple.
- adj. obsolete Unmarried.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. abstaining from unlawful sexual intercourse
- adj. morally pure (especially not having experienced sexual intercourse)
- adj. pure and simple in design or style
Etymologies
- From Old French chaste ("morally pure"), from Latin castus ("pure"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from Latin castus; see kes- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I know that the current view of sex is unbridled recreation, but that fact is the very reason why the word chaste is quasi obsolete and often equated with marital infidelity.”
Simon & Schuster: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time
“Pallotti offers this bit of ecclesiastical hokum as it if it made perfect, pious sense: the point of the program isn't celibacy "as much as creating what they call a chaste kind of life.”
“So as not to disturb this important natural phase of growth, parents will recognize that prudent formation in chaste love during this period should be indirect, in preparation for puberty, when direct information will be necessary. [more ...]”
“The girls try to remain chaste, but the boys have sex with them anyway: Rape.”
“How come the only organ the left insists be chaste is the lung?”
“That virgins and young men, before they feel in themselves the love of the sex, are commonly called chaste, is owing to ignorance of what chastity is.”
“Well, it was hard lines on her, but duty called, so I just popped my head round her door to call a chaste farewell - and there she was, dammit, reclining languorously on the coverlet like one of those randy classical goddesses, wearing nothing but the big ostrich-plume fan I'd brought her from Egypt, and her sniggering maid turning the lamp down low.”
“It's a symbol of 'chastity' which is intended by the Sikh Gurus [founders of Sikhism] to serve the followers the need to remain chaste.”
“Vitex, also known as chaste tree and agnus castus, is extremely popular in Europe, where it is used to treat PMS as well as some of the unpleasant side effects associated with menopause.”
“Freshly baked bread, diverse wines, local olive oil which Preston calls chaste maidenwhat more could you want?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘chaste’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 more...
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The weird, the wonderful and the plai...
Loved for their ingenuity, an exact description, or simply for the pure joy of it.
acidulous, aprosdoketon, higgledy-piggledy, lexicographical, ninja, audacious, somnabulist, shivaree, amorphous, quidnunc, glib, melancholy and 353 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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Genes
Interesting gene names. Some of these may have changed recently (to something less offensive/funny).
http://www.genenames.org/
tinman, agnostic, dreadlocks, Van Gogh, fruitless, lava lamp, ariadne, cheap date, ken and barbie, I'm not dead yet, I'm not dead yet 2, manic fringe and 1192 more... -
Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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GRE
anomaly, assuage, enigma, equivocal, erudite, fervid, placate, lucid, opaque, precipitate, prodigal, zeal and 113 more...
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Chainlink's Words
hat, opalescent, opal, emerald, sapphire, scythe, carnival, calliope, brilliant, awesome, feather, fantastic and 268 more...
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wreckingball's Words
reprehensible, problematize, crepuscular, deleterious, pestilent, strumpet, draggletail, interrobang, meretricious, systematize, schadenfreude, capricious and 443 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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anotherfailedattempt's Words
kakistocracy, conflagration, pollyanna, equanimity, punctillious, obstreperous, ribald, belligerent, truculent, verbose, lachrymose, onanism and 278 more...
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Rilakkuma's list
The Velvetine Ruffians
gamine, waif, ruffian, villain, rake, libertine, velvetine, luminary, nom de plume, street urchin, epicurean, eventide and 256 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for chaste.
Noelle Knight "He kissed my cheek in a chaste, friend-of-the-boyfriend way." -Club Dead, by Charlaine Harris Feb 5, 2011
jorge999 last night I dreamt that I was chaste Nov 9, 2009
ofravens Plath citations: see note at swan. Mar 31, 2008