Baptism
['bæptɪz(ə)m] or ['bæptɪzəm]
Definition
(noun.) a Christian sacrament signifying spiritual cleansing and rebirth; 'most churches baptize infants but some insist on adult baptism'.
Typist: Lottie--From WordNet
Definition
(v. i.) The act of baptizing; the application of water to a person, as a sacrament or religious ceremony, by which he is initiated into the visible church of Christ. This is performed by immersion, sprinkling, or pouring.
Edited by Babbage
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of baptism, signifies that your character needs strengthening by the practice of temperance in advocating your opinions to the disparagement of your friends. To dream that you are an applicant, signifies that you will humiliate your inward self for public favor. To dream that you see John the Baptist baptizing Christ in the Jordan, denotes that you will have a desperate mental struggle between yielding yourself to labor in meagre capacity for the sustenance of others, or follow desires which might lead you into wealth and exclusiveness. To see the Holy Ghost descending on Christ, is significant of resignation to duty and abnegation of self. If you are being baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire, means that you will be thrown into a state of terror over being discovered in some lustful engagement.
Editor: Trudy
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. A sacred rite of such efficacy that he who finds himself in heaven without having undergone it will be unhappy forever. It is performed with water in two ways—by immersion or plunging and by aspersion or sprinkling.
Edited by Colin
Examples
- I do not mean to be conferred in Baptism upon our children, but to be inscribed on Bills of Exchange, and negotiated in the Money Market. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- To refuse baptism or to retract after baptism was a crime punishable by death. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- What I now suffered was called illness--a headache: I accepted the baptism. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
Editor: Randolph