ROSARY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Rosary

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/rˈoʊzəri/ Listen

noun

Rosary n. (pl. rosaries)

A bed of roses, or place where roses grow. "Thick rosaries of scented thorn."

(R.C.Ch.) A series of prayers (see Note below) arranged to be recited in order, on beads; also, a string of beads by which the prayers are counted. "His idolized book, and the whole rosary of his prayers." Note: A rosary consists of fifteen decades. Each decade contains ten Ave Marias marked by small beads, preceded by a Paternoster, marked by a larger bead, and concluded by a Gloria Patri. Five decades make a chaplet, a third part of the rosary.

A chapelet; a garland; a series or collection, as of beautiful thoughts or of literary selections. "Every day propound to yourself a rosary or chaplet of good works to present to God at night."

A coin bearing the figure of a rose, fraudulently circulated in Ireland in the 13th century for a penny.

Rosary shell (Zool.), any marine gastropod shell of the genus Monodonta. They are top-shaped, bright-colored and pearly.

See images of 'Rosary'

Etymology of 'Rosary'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Rosary" Quotes from Famous Books

... temple, the floor of which was raised some five feet above the level of the ground. A large door led into it. At this entrance were, one on either side, recesses in which, by the side of a big drum, squatted two Lamas with books of prayers before them, a praying-wheel and a rosary in their hands, the beads of which they shifted after every prayer. At our appearance the monks ceased their prayers and beat the drums in an excited manner. There seemed to be some disturbance in the Gomba. ...

— An Explorer's Adventures in Tibet • A. Henry Savage Landor

... establishment as visiting the granaries and presses, and the bringing home of the goats. The Signora's apartments, which she permitted us to see, were quite in the nature of an oratory, with shrines and sacred pictures and relics of the faith. By the shrine at the head of her bed hung the rosary carried by Father Junipero,—a priceless possession. From her presses and armoires, the Signora, seeing we had a taste for such things, brought out the feminine treasures of three generations, the silk and embroidered dresses of last century, the ...

— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... of burden; cruelty the only means of reformation. It found the world at the mercy of disease and famine; men trying to read their fates in the stars, and to tell their fortunes by signs and wonders; generals thinking to conquer their enemies by making the sign of the cross, or by telling a rosary. It found all history full of petty and ridiculous falsehood, and the Almighty was supposed to spend most of his time turning sticks into snakes, drowning boys for swimming on Sunday, and killing little children for the purpose of converting ...

— Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Volume I • Robert Green Ingersoll

... the fire till the black essence of them was extracted. She waited till the decoction was cold, then dipped the corner of a long kerchief therein and stained her face therewith. Moreover, she donned over her clothes a long gaberdine with an embroidered border and took in her hand a rosary, and afterwards went in to King Afridun, who knew her not, nor did any of his companions know her, till she discovered herself to them: and there was none in the assembly but who thanked and praised her for her cunning; and her son rejoiced and said, "May the Messiah never ...

— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... another it is the single dark spot upon a world of pleasure—in one mood the single thing that makes life worth living at all, and in another the one obstacle to our contentment? What are those sorrowful and joyful mysteries of human life, mutually contradictory yet together resultant (as in the Rosary itself) in others that are glorious? Turn to that master passion that underlies these mysteries—the passion that is called love—and see if there be anything more inexplicable than such an explanation. What is this passion, then, that turns joy to sorrow ...

— Paradoxes of Catholicism • Robert Hugh Benson

More quotes...