hermit

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: her=mit

CIDE DICTIONARY

hermit, n. [OE. ermite, eremite, heremit, heremite, F. hermite, ermite, L. eremita, Gr. , fr. lonely, solitary. Cf. Eremite.].

•  A person who retires from society and lives in solitude; a recluse; an anchoret; especially, one who so lives from religious motives.  [1913 Webster]

  "He had been Duke of Savoy, and after a very glorious reign, took on him the habit of a hermit, and retired into this solitary spot."  [1913 Webster]
•  A beadsman; one bound to pray for another.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  A spiced molasses cookie, often containing chopped raisins and nuts.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

Hermit crab (Zoöl.), a marine decapod crustacean of the family Paguridæ. The species are numerous, and belong to many genera. Called also soldier crab. The hermit crabs usually occupy the dead shells of various univalve mollusks. See Illust. of Commensal. -- Hermit thrush (Zoöl.), an American thrush (Turdus Pallasii), with retiring habits, but having a sweet song. -- Hermit warbler (Zoöl.), a California wood warbler (Dendroica occidentalis), having the head yellow, the throat black, and the back gray, with black streaks.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

hermit, n.
1 an early Christian recluse.
2 any person living in solitude.

Idiom

hermit-crab any crab of the family Paguridae that lives in a cast-off mollusc shell for protection. hermit thrush a migratory N. American thrush, Catharus guttatus.

Derivative

hermitic adj.

Etymology

ME f. OF (h)ermite or f. LL eremita f. Gk eremites f. eremia desert f. eremos solitary

DEVIL DICTIONARY

hermit

n. A person whose vices and follies are not sociable.

THESAURUS

hermit

Albigensian, Catharist, Diogenes, Franciscan, Hieronymian, Hieronymite, Sabbatarian, Timon of Athens, Trappist, Waldensian, abbacomes, abbot, abstainer, alien, anchoress, anchoret, anchorite, ascetic, beadsman, bedridden invalid, bhikshu, brother, caloyer, case, celibate, cenobite, character, cloistered monk, closet cynic, conventual, conventual prior, crackpot, crank, dervish, desert fathers, desert saints, eccentric, eremite, fakir, fanatic, flagellant, friar, grand prior, hermitess, hieromonach, hobo, homebody, invalid, isolationist, kook, lay abbot, lay brother, lone wolf, loner, marabout, maverick, mendicant, meshuggenah, monastic, monk, natural, nonconformist, nut, odd fellow, oddball, oddity, original, outcast, outsider, palmer, pariah, pilgrim, pillar saint, pillarist, prior, puritan, queer duck, queer fish, queer specimen, rara avis, recluse, religieux, religious, sannyasi, screwball, seclusionist, shut-in, solitaire, solitary, solitudinarian, stay-at-home, stylite, tramp, type, yogi, yogin, zealot

ROGET THESAURUS

hermit

Exclusion

N exclusion, nonadmission, omission, exception, rejection, repudiation, exile, noninclusion, preclusion, prohibition, separation, segregation, seposition, elimination, expulsion, cofferdam, excluding, exclusive, excluded, unrecounted, not included in, inadmissible, exclusive of, barring, except, with the exception of, save, bating, exclusion, seclusion, exclusion, seclusion, privacy, retirement, reclusion, recess, snugness, delitescence, rustication, rus in urbe, solitude, solitariness, isolation, loneliness, estrangement from the world, voluntary exile, aloofness, cell, hermitage, convent, sanctum sanctorum, depopulation, desertion, desolation, wilderness, howling wilderness, rotten borough, Old Sarum, exclusion, excommunication, banishment, exile, ostracism, proscription, cut, cut direct, dead cut, inhospitality, inhospitableness, dissociability, domesticity, Darby and Joan, recluse, hermit, eremite, cenobite, anchoret, anchorite, Simon Stylites, troglodyte, Timon of Athens, Santon, solitaire, ruralist, disciple of Zimmermann, closet cynic, Diogenes, outcast, Pariah, castaway, pilgarlic, wastrel, foundling, wilding, secluded, sequestered, retired, delitescent, private, bye, out of the world, out of the way, the world forgetting by the world forgot, snug, domestic, stay-at-home, unsociable, unsocial, dissocial, inhospitable, cynical, inconversable, unclubbable, sauvage, troglodytic, solitary, lonely, lonesome, isolated, single, estranged, unfrequented, uninhabitable, uninhabited, tenantless, abandoned, deserted, deserted in one's utmost need, unfriended, kithless, friendless, homeless, lorn, forlorn, desolate, unvisited, unintroduced, uninvited, unwelcome, under a cloud, left to shift for oneself, derelict, outcast, banished, noli me tangere, among them but not of them, and homeless near a thousand homes I stood, far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, makes a solitude and calls it peace, magna civitas magna solitudo, never less alone than when alone, O sacred solitude! divine retreat!.

Asceticism

N asceticism, puritanism, sabbatarianism, cynicism, austerity, total abstinence, nephalism, mortification, maceration, sackcloth and ashes, flagellation, penance, fasting, martyrdom, ascetic, anchoret, anchorite, martyr, Heautontimorumenos, hermit, puritan, sabbatarian, cynic, sanyasi, yogi, ascetic, austere, puritanical, cynical, over-religious, acerbic.