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  1. infidel love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Offensive An unbeliever with respect to a particular religion, especially Christianity or Islam.
  2. n. One who has no religious beliefs.
  3. n. One who doubts or rejects a particular doctrine, system, or principle.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Without faith: unbelieving; disbelieving; especially, rejecting the distinctive doctrines of a particular religion, while perhaps an adherent of some other religion.
  2. Specifically Rejecting the Christian religion while accepting no other; not believing in the Bible or any divine revelation: used especially of persons belonging to Christian communities.
  3. Due to or manifesting unbelief.
  4. n. An unbeliever; a disbeliever; one who denies the distinctive tenets of a particular religion.
  5. n. Specifically A disbeliever in religion or divine revelation in general; especially, one who denies or refuses to believe in the Christian religion while accepting no other; one who rejects the inspiration of the Scriptures, or the divine origin and authority of Christianity as revealed in the Bible.
  6. n. In feudal law, one who violated fealty. Rapalje and Lawrence. Synonyms Infidel, Unbeliever, Disbeliever, Deist, Atheist, Agnostic, Skeptic, Free-thinker. The word infidel is generally used in opprobrium. It may mean either a disbeliever in one's own religion as opposed to another (as a Christian in the view of a Mohammedan, or the contrary), or a deist, an atheist, or an agnostic. (See below.) In strict use, however, it is not applicable to one who has never heard of Christianity, nor to one who rejects some particular doctrine of the Christian church, while he accepts Christianity as a divinely revealed religion, nor to one who is in avowed doubt respecting the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, but willing to be taught and persuaded. The first is a heathen, the second a heretic, the third a skeptic. Unbeliever and disbeliever are negative in form, but disbeliever is positive in its implication that one actually refuses to believe; the unbeliever only fails to believe. (See disbelief.) Unbeliever is almost always general, applying to Christianity as a whole; disbeliever is specific, but has a wider range of possible application: as, a disbeliever in the divine right of kings. A deist believes in a God, but denies the fact or possibility of a revelation. An atheist denies the existence of a God. An agnostic denies

Wiktionary

  1. n. A non-believer of a certain religion.
  2. n. One who does not believe in a certain principle.
  3. n. One with no religious beliefs.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Not holding the faith; -- applied by Christians to one who does not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures, and the supernatural origin of Christianity; used by Mohammedans to refer to those who do not believe in Islam.
  2. n. One who does not believe in the prevailing religious faith; a heathen; a freethinker; -- used especially by Christians and Mohammedans.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a person who does not acknowledge your god

Etymologies

  1. First attested 1460, from Latin īnfidēlis ("unfaithful"), from in- ("not") + fidēlis ("faithful"). See fidelity. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English infidele, from Old French, from Latin īnfidēlis, disloyal : in-, not; see in-1 + fidēlis, faithful (from fidēs, faith; see bheidh- in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “At a time when the term infidel or unbeliever was still the accusation of choice, the rejoinder that one was a-gnostic -- literally, "against gnosis" -- meant that he or she was taking a principled stand against ancient systems of belief.”

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

  • “And though the application of the term infidel to such a man would not fail to arouse his fiercest indignation, his indifference to the events and the fate of the great hereafter can arise from nothing else than an utter disbelief in the teachings of Holy”

    The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864 Devoted to Literature and National Policy

  • “The term infidel was used by Christians to describe non-Christians or those perceived as the enemies of Christianity, especially to designate monotheists (Muslims) who do not subscribe to the Judeo-Christian concept of God, and thus differs from heathen or pagan.”

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion

  • “Note 257: Like barbarian, the term infidel is unavoidably subjective and reflexive: often it is used to describe "others" that are beyond one's sphere of familiarity.”

    Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro

  • “Al Shahab as they're known, are battling what they called the infidel Christian occupier Ethiopia and (inaudible) its regime.”

    CNN Transcript May 3, 2008

  • “But if you introduce such a mixture into the stomach, and thence into the brain of an already fiery Bedouin; and then introduce the Bedouin to trouble; and if, in addition to the trouble, you provide impertinent, alien, and what he calls infidel restraint, it is fair to presume that the mixture might explode.”

    Jimgrim and Allah's Peace

  • “In this document Lincoln seemed to make two different claims: that he never believed in infidel doctrines, and that he never publicly espoused them.”

    Lincoln’s Emancipation

  • “That, of course, has been hotly debated from the election of 1800 to today, and Jefferson has been called an infidel, a Deist and more.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Thomas Jefferson's Cut-and-Paste Bible

  • “And how does a bunch of "infidels" like us make any deal with Muslims, whose Holy Book says that no promise to an infidel is binding upon Muslims?”

    Sound Politics: Crazy People in the News

  • “I'd love to think there might actually be a mythical "moderate muslim", but after reading the koran, I do not see how they can exist and since lying to the infidel is proscribed, trust is just right out and at any point they can decide to come true to their book.”

    Sound Politics: It's in the P-I

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Lists

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Comments

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  • bilby "Marayaw sumabulak sumping ha kubul kapil, ayaw sumabulak ha kubul lalim.
    It’s better to strew flowers on the grave of an infidel than that of a tyrant." - Tausug proverb. Dec 20, 2007

  • pixie-elf Infidel is just sexy. Apr 13, 2007

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‘infidel’ has been looked up 2251 times, loved by 3 people, added to 36 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.