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Practicing beggary; begging; living on alms; as, mendicant friars. Mendicant orders (R. C. Ch.), certain monastic orders which are forbidden to acquire landed property and are required to be supported by alms, esp. the Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Carmelites, and the Augustinians.

A friar of a mendicant order (the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel) established on Mount Carmel, in Syria, in the twelfth century; a White Friar.

One of an order of mendicant monks founded by Dominic de Guzman, in 1215. A province of the order was established in England in 1221. The first foundation in the United States was made in 1807. The Master of the Sacred Palace at Rome is always a Dominican friar. The Dominicans are called also preaching friars, friars p…

stunning check or defeat, as in controversy. [Collog.] I should have been a stercoraceous mendicant if I had hollowed when I got a facer. C. Kingsley.

A monk or friar of the Order of St. Francis, a large and zealous order of mendicant monks founded in 1209 by St. Francis of Assisi. They are called also Friars Minor; and in England, Gray Friars, because they wear a gray habit.

A brother or member of any religious order, but especially of one of the four mendicant orders, viz: (a) Minors, Gray Friars, or Franciscans. (b) Augustines. (c) Dominicans or Black Friars. (d) White Friars or Carmelites. See these names in the Vocabulary.

The condition of being mendicant; beggary; begging. Burke.

A mendicant or begging friar. [Obs.] Chaucer.

One of an austere order of mendicant hermits of friars founded in the 15th century by St. Francis of Paola.

he ranks are in Ant: open order. -- The four Orders, The Orders four, the four orders of mendicant friars. See Friar. Chaucer. -- General orders (Mil.), orders issued which concern the whole command, or the troops generally, in distinction from special orders. -- Holy orders. (a) (Eccl.) The different grades of the…

y religious community endowed with property in lands, buildings, etc., as contrasted with mendicant friars. [Obs.] Wyclif.

Formerly, a wandering mendicant discharged as incurable from Bethlehem Hospitel, Eng.; hence, a wandering mendicant, either mad or feigning to be so; a madman; a bedlamite.

A mendicant monk of the Carmelite order, so called from the white cloaks worn by the order. See Carmelite.