anchorite

plural anchorites · alternative anachoret · alternative anachorete · alternative anachorite · alternative anchoret

1. One who lives in isolation or seclusion, especially for religious reasons; hermit.

   Oh, hang him? He's a very Anchorite—a young Hermit!

   1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, IV.iii

   5 more examples

   The household was diminished, and its expenses curtailed. There was a very blank anchorite repast when Pen dined from home: and he himself headed the remonstrance from the kitchen regarding the deteriorated quality of the Fairoaks beer.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC

   He must not dilute his own soul’s essence. He must not surrender to any passion his dandihood. The dandy must be celibate, cloistral; is, indeed, but a monk with a mirror for beads and breviary—an anchorite, mortifying his soul that his body may be perfect.

   1911, Max Beerbohm, chapter II, in Zuleika Dobson

   The preposterous altruism too![…]Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   “Haven't you been in love since you came to Paris?” “I haven't got time for that sort of nonsense. Life isn't long enough for love and art.” “Your appearance doesn't suggest the anchorite.”

   1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XXI, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC

   About 1150 some Palestinian anchorites adopted the eremitical rule of St. Basil, and spread throughout Palestine; when the Moslems captured the Holy Land these "Carmelites" migrated to Cyprus, Sicily, France, and England.

   1950, Will Durant, The Age of Faith, Simon and Schuster,, page 792

   Synonyms: anchor, anchorist, eremite, hermit, recluse