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  1. tonsure love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The act of shaving the head or part of the head, especially as a preliminary to becoming a priest or a member of a monastic order.
  2. n. The part of a monk's or priest's head that has been shaved.
  3. v. To shave the head of.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The act of clipping the hair, or of shaving the head, or the state of being shorn.
  2. n. Specifically— In the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, the ceremony of shaving or cutting off the hair of the head, either wholly or partially, performed upon a candidate as a preparatory step to his entering the priesthood or embracing a monastic life; hence, entrance or admittance into the clerical state or a monastic order. In the early church the clergy wore the hair short, but not shaven. The tonsure seems to be as old as the fifth or sixth century. In the Greek Church the hair is wholly shaved off. In the Roman Catholic Church a part only is shaved, so as to form a circle on the crown of the head, and the first tonsure can be given only by a bishop, a mitered abbot, or a cardinal priest.
  3. n. The bare place on the head of a priest or monk, formed by shaving or cutting the hair.
  4. To shave or clip the hair of the head of; specifically, to give the tonsure to.

Wiktionary

  1. v. Christianity To subject to the often ritual shaving of the crown of the head as a sign of humility and one's religious vocation. Some tonsures were more dramatic than others, leaving only a fringe of hair. Abolished by Vatican II in the Roman Catholic Church.
  2. n. The bald patch resulting from being tonsured.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. The act of clipping the hair, or of shaving the crown of the head; also, the state of being shorn.
  2. n. The first ceremony used for devoting a person to the service of God and the church; the first degree of the clericate, given by a bishop, abbot, or cardinal priest, consisting in cutting off the hair from a circular space at the back of the head, with prayers and benedictions; hence, entrance or admission into minor orders.
  3. n. The shaven corona, or crown, which priests wear as a mark of their order and of their rank.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the shaved crown of a monk's or priest's head
  2. v. shave the head of a newly inducted monk
  3. n. shaving the crown of the head by priests or members of a monastic order

Etymologies

  1. From Latin tonsūra ("a clipping, trimming"), from tondeō ("shear, clip, trim"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin tōnsūra, from Latin, a shearing, from tōnsus, past participle of tondēre, to shear; see tem- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. cutting

hypernyms (5)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. poll
  1. crown
  1. pate
  1. shave
  1. shaving

same context (11)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. vestments
  2. cowl
  1. celibacy
  2. cassock
  1. self-deprecation
  2. bandeau
  1. scapulary
  2. soutane
  1. periwig
  2. immunities
  1. ircop

reverse dictionary (10)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. tonsure
  2. tonsured
  1. tonsure-plate
  2. priest's-crown
  1. crown
  2. zuchetto
  1. calotte
  2. clerical
  1. crowning
  2. zucchetta

tagging (1)

Words tagged ‘tonsure’

  1. untonsured

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Lists

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  • seanahan Looking at Project Gutenberg, I find

    Stephen Dedalus, displeased and sleepy, leaned
    his arms on the top of the staircase and looked coldly at the shaking gurgling face that blessed him, equine in its length, and at the light untonsured hair, grained and hued like pale oak.


    A choir gives back menace and echo, assisting about the altar's horns, the snorted Latin of jackpriests moving burly in their albs, tonsured and oiled and gelded, fat with the fat of kidneys of wheat.
    Aug 26, 2009

  • zentennum in Joyce's Ulysses at least twice Aug 22, 2009

  • artoparts See: Eskiem, Rassophore, Stavrophore & Schema. Jan 29, 2009

  • uselessness Never knew it had a name. Well, I never really thought about it. ;-) May 29, 2007

  • trivet monk hair! May 29, 2007

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‘tonsure’ has been looked up 3048 times, loved by 6 people, added to 34 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 7.