Adjective
mendicant (not comparable)
- Depending on alms for a living.
- Of or pertaining to a beggar.
- Of or pertaining to a member of a religious order forbidden to own property, and who must beg for a living.
Translations
of or pertaining to a beggar
- Bulgarian: просешки (proseški)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
- Finnish: kerjäläis- (fi)
- Polish: żebraczy (pl)
- Russian: нищенский (ru) (niščenskij)
- Spanish: please add this translation if you can
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of or pertaining to a member of a religious order who begs
Noun
mendicant (plural mendicants)
- A pauper who lives by begging.
1856 May, Thomas Hughes, quoting Charles Kingsley, “Prefatory Memoir”, in Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. […], London: Macmillan and Co., published 1876, →OCLC, page lvi:I made £150 by Alton Locke, and never lost a farthing; and I got, not in spite of, but by the rows, a name and a standing with many a one who would never have heard of me otherwise, and I should have been a stercoraceous mendicant if I had hollowed when I got a facer, while I was winning by the cross, though I didn't mean to fight one.
- A religious friar, forbidden to own personal property, who begs for a living.