Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In France, one of the regular Franciscan monks: so called from the girdle of knotted cord worn by that order. See Franciscan.
  • noun plural The name of one of the Parisian political clubs in the time of the revolution, from its holding its sittings in the chapel of an old convent of the Cordeliers.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Eccl. Hist.) A Franciscan; -- so called in France from the girdle of knotted cord worn by all Franciscans.
  • noun (Fr. Hist.) A member of a French political club of the time of the first Revolution, of which Danton and Marat were members, and which met in an old Cordelier convent in Paris.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Apropos of citing an author, I must amuse myself with relating a singular mistake of the reverend Father Viret, cordelier and professor of theology.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • A history of the Low Countries, composed by Meteren, relates that a cordelier named Adriacem, a great preacher at Bruges, used to whip his female penitents quite naked.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • The cordelier, before he was hanged, acknowledged that he had stolen them, and described the persons, and the road they had taken.

    Candide 2007

  • “Alas!” said the old woman, “I have a shrewd suspicion of a reverend father cordelier, who lay last night in the same inn with us at Badajoz; God forbid I should condemn any one wrongfully, but he came into our room twice, and he set off in the morning long before us.”

    Candide 2007

  • A woman, in the sacrament, declares, or pretends, before a carmelite, that a cordelier has seduced her; and the carmelite must denounce the cordelier.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • A cordelier, who was my confessor, easily seduced me; the consequences proved terrible.

    Candide 2007

  • The reverend father Viret, cordelier, theologian, and preacher, all humble as he is, will always firmly believe that he knows more than those who learn to read and write; but his Christian humility, his modesty of soul, will oblige him to confess in the bottom of his heart that he has written nothing but nonsense.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • She then reviled him for presuming to affront her before strangers, and gave the company to understand, that the young ladies would wait upon them as soon as they could be confessed and receive absolution from a worthy cordelier, who was now employed in performing that charitable office.

    The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom 2004

  • Yon cordelier will show you the bay, where his vessel took refuge in its distress; and will tell you, that yon jagged rock first gave its dangerous welcome, to the bark of his patron saint.

    A Love Story A Bushman

  • I fancy, when the affair of the cordelier was on the carpet, as shown in its place.

    Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete Various

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