mendicant

1 of 2

noun

men·​di·​cant ˈmen-di-kənt 

1

: beggar sense 1

wandering mendicants

2

often capitalized : a member of a religious order (such as the Franciscans) combining monastic life and outside religious activity and originally owning neither personal nor community property : friar

mendicant

2 of 2

adjective

1

: practicing beggary : engaged in begging

Past the Winter Garden where Cats plays on … past the half-hour photo store, past the mendicant saxophone player on the corner.

—Margot Hornblower

My father also gave me quarters to give to homeless, mendicant men along the route, even though our family was very poor.

—Phil Kronk

2

: of, relating to, belonging to, or constituting a religious order combining monastic life and outside religious activity and originally owning neither personal nor community property

mendicant friars

Friars should not be confused with monks. Members of the mendicant orders are friars, and include Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, Servites and Carmelites.

—Leslie Sellers

Synonyms

Noun

• beggar
• panhandler

Examples of mendicant in a Sentence

Noun

those wretched mendicants on the streets of Calcutta

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

In Thank You for Your Servitude, which for my money is the only truly interesting book about the Trump presidency, author Mark Leibovich goes into harrowing detail about how the modern GOP readily turned itself into a gaggle of mendicants to serve Trump on bended knee. —Jason Linkins, The New Republic, 29 Apr. 2023

All these words strike me as vaguely offensive except for mendicant and supplicant. —Stephen Miller, WSJ, 11 Oct. 2021

But both mendicant and supplicant have a religious connotation. —Stephen Miller, WSJ, 11 Oct. 2021

The island was a coda of sorts: a place of Christian pilgrimage since the death of a local mendicant, later canonized as St. Cuthbert, in 687. —Henry Wismayer, Washington Post, 8 Sep. 2021

The fortunes of alphabetical order were further advanced by the growth of mendicant preaching orders. —Katherine A. Powers, WSJ, 16 Oct. 2020

Francis is the first pope to name himself after the mendicant friar, who renounced a wealthy, dissolute lifestyle to embrace a life of poverty and service to the poor. —CBS News, 5 Oct. 2020

Created in 2012 by the Dominicans, a Catholic mendicant order, Optic has the goal of ensuring that emerging technologies respect human dignity. —Rebecca Heilweil, Fortune, 24 Nov. 2019

The convent houses the nearly 800-year-old tomb of Saint Francis, the most poetic of holy men, who thought money was worth less than asses’ dung and inspired a mendicant order. —The Economist, 7 Sep. 2019

Adjective

The abrupt appearance and disappearance of the mendicant pilgrim is part of her power. —Seyward Darby, Longreads, 5 Apr. 2023

No doubt the traditional tunic and mantle of his mendicant religious order met some standard of austerity when they were adopted in the Middle Ages. —Nicholas Frankovich, National Review, 2 Jan. 2021

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin mendicant-, mendicans, present participle of mendicare to beg, from mendicus beggar — more at amend

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adjective

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Kids Definition

mendicant

noun

men·​di·​cant ˈmen-di-kənt 

1

: one who lives by begging

2

: a member of a religious order originally owning neither personal nor community property and living mostly on charitable donations : friar

mendicancy

-kən-sē

noun

mendicant adjective