vegetarian

What it means

1. A person who does not eat animal flesh, or, in some cases, use any animal products.First known use 1839

   Heh heh. You hit like a vegetarian!

   2013, Miles Chapman, Arnell Jesko, Escape Plan, spoken by Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

   5 more examples

   "The sight and smell of raw meat are especially odious to me, and I have often thought that if I had had to be my own cook, I should inevitably become a vegetarian, probably, indeed, return entirely to my green and salad days."

   1839, Fanny Kemble, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839, New York: Harper and Brothers, published 1863, pp. 197-198

   Vegetarian Society […] A society […] formed at Manchester in 1847, to promote the use of cereals, pulse, and fruit, as articles of diet; and to induce habits of abstinence from fish, flesh, and fowl, as food.

   1897, Robert Hunter, Charles Morris, Universal Dictionary of the English Language, volume 4, page 5045

   vegetarian […] One who abstains from animal food, living exclusively on vegetables, milk, eggs, and the like. The more strict vegetarians eat vegetables and farinaceous food only, abstaining from eggs, butter, milk, and in some cases, honey.

   1897, Robert Hunter, Charles Morris, Universal Dictionary of the English Language, volume 4, page 5045

   I went in for all books available on vegetarianism and read them. One of these, Howard Williams' The Ethics of Diet, was a 'biographical history of the literature of humane dietetics from the earliest period to the present day'. It tried to make out, that all philosophers and prophets from Pythagoras and Jesus down to those of the present age were vegetarians.

   1925-29, Mahadev Desai (translator), M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Part I, chapter xv

   Many vegetarians abhor the thought of killing animals to feed themselves and also the methods by which animals are slaughtered.

   1975 March 21, Judy Klemesrud, “Vegetarianism: Growing Way of Life, Especially Among the Young”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 02 Nov 2025

2. An animal that eats only plants; a herbivore.

   Synonyms: herbivore

In a sentence

"The sight and smell of raw meat are especially odious to me, and I have often thought that if I had had to be my own cook, I should inevitably become a vegetarian, probably, indeed, return entirely to my green and salad days."

1839, Fanny Kemble, Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839, New York: Harper and Brothers, published 1863, pp. 197-198

Where it comes from

From vegetable + -arian; popularized following the foundation of the British Vegetarian Society in 1847.

First known use: 1839