HERMIT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Hermit

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/hˈərmət/ Listen

noun

Hermit n.

A person who retires from society and lives in solitude; a recluse; an anchoret; especially, one who so lives from religious motives. "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."

A beadsman; one bound to pray for another. (Obs.) "We rest your hermits."

(Cookery) A spiced molasses cookie, often containing chopped raisins and nuts.

Hermit crab (Zool.), a marine decapod crustacean of the family Paguridae. 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.

Hermit thrush (Zool.), an American thrush (Turdus Pallasii), with retiring habits, but having a sweet song.

Hermit warbler (Zool.), a California wood warbler (Dendroica occidentalis), having the head yellow, the throat black, and the back gray, with black streaks.

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Etymology of 'Hermit'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Hermit" Quotes from Famous Books

... drew the sword from the heart of the stone, and lightly he slid it into the scabbard at his side. While all yet wondered at this adventure of the sword, there came riding to them a lady on a white palfrey who, saluting King Arthur, said: "Sir king, Nacien the hermit sends thee word that this day shall great honor be shown to thee and all thine house; for the Holy Grail shall appear in thy hall, and thou and all thy fellowship shall be fed therefrom." And to Launcelot she said: ...

— The Junior Classics, V4 • Willam Patten (Editor)

... midsummer. And if you'll take my advice and straddle one of his thoroughbreds once a day, you'll get some color in your face. I've fixed everything for you. You're to have a front room on the ground floor, and pay twelve dollars a month. That's cheaper than stealing it. But you don't want to make a hermit of yourself when you get down there. Come up and spend a week or two with me. Miss 'Pheme [his wife] will be mighty glad to see you. She makes me walk chalk, but she'll be easy on you. You're going to be with mighty fine folks,—the cream of the county. They were ...

— The Love Story of Abner Stone • Edwin Carlile Litsey

... I fairly laughed. Harold, at his age, who never touched liquor, and had lived a sort of hermit life in the Bush, to be saddled with a wife only to have destroyed her! The story contradicted itself by its own absurdity; and those two Miss Stympsons were well-known scandal-mongers. Miss Woolmer never believed a story of theirs ...

— My Young Alcides - A Faded Photograph • Charlotte M. Yonge

... Louisa herself in her diary calls the "sentimental period," she was strongly influenced by the poet and naturalist, Thoreau. From him she learned to know Nature in a closer and more loving intimacy. Thoreau was called a hermit, and known as a genius, and more often than not he could be found in his hut in the woods, or on the river bank, where he learned to look for the bright-eyed "Alcott girl," who would swing along his side in twenty-mile tramps, eager and inquisitive about everything, learning new facts about ...

— Ten American Girls From History • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... the king and he departed, and went until an hermit that was a good man and a great leach. So the hermit searched all his wounds and gave him good salves; so the king was there three days, and then were his wounds well amended that he might ride and go, and so departed. And as they rode, Arthur said, I have no sword. No force, said ...

— Song and Legend From the Middle Ages • William D. McClintock and Porter Lander McClintock

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