Layman
['leɪmən] or ['lemən]
Definition
(noun.) someone who is not a clergyman or a professional person.
Typed by Brooke--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) One of the people, in distinction from the clergy; one of the laity; sometimes, a man not belonging to some particular profession, in distinction from those who do.
(n.) A lay figure. See under Lay, n. (above).
Checked by Balder
Synonyms and Antonyms
[See CLERGYMAN]
Typed by Chloe
Examples
- I myself am a layman, but I have given no inconsiderable attention to the divisions in the Church and-- Oh, damn the divisions! George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Holy father, said the knight, upon whose countenance it hath pleased Heaven to work such a miracle, permit a sinful layman to crave thy name? Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- To the layman the bones are a mere curiosity. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- I tell thee, friar, thou must lay down the rosary and take up the quarter-staff; we shall need every one of our merry men, whether clerk or layman. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- The layman's distrust of the unverified hypothesis is in the mai n wholesome. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- The church, in comparison with its later state, was more in the hands of local laymen and the local ruler; it lacked its later universality. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
Edited by Glenn