anchoress

American  

[ang-ker-is] / ˈæŋ kər ɪs /

noun

1. a woman who is an anchorite.

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Gender

What's the difference between anchoress and anchor? See -ess.

Etymology

Origin of anchoress

First recorded in 1350–1400; late Middle English anchoryse, Middle English ankres, equivalent to ancre anchorite + -es -ess

Example Sentences

Julian lived as an anchoress, a type of religious hermit, and was likely bricked up inside a small stone cell during her 40-odd years of monastic life.

From New York Times • Jan. 21, 2011

I'll not go back to my anchoress lodge in the north till I see what works out of them!

From The Herd Boy and His Hermit by Yonge, Charlotte Mary

There was an anchorite in one corner of Faversham churchyard, and an anchoress in another, and in their cells they sat and sulked their lives away, and never did any work.

From The Dover Road Annals of an Ancient Turnpike by Harper, Charles G.

Stop before the house of this anchoress, secluded from the world, and absorbed in pious meditations, a holy and quiet place.

From A Literary History of the English People From the Origins to the Renaissance by Jusserand, Jean Jules

Joan Sperry, nun of Clementhorpe, was anchoress at Beeston near Leeds in 1322, and in 1348 Margaret la Boteler, nun of Hampole, was anchoress at the chapel of East Layton, Yorks.

From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Power, Eileen