WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

Ishmael
    n 1: (Old Testament) the son of Abraham who was cast out after
         the birth of Isaac; considered the forebear of 12 Arabian
         tribes
    2: a person who is rejected (from society or home) [syn:
       outcast, castaway, pariah, Ishmael]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

20 Moby Thesaurus words for "Ishmael":
   DP, castaway, declasse, derelict, displaced person, evictee, exile,
   expatriate, expellee, leper, outcast, outcast of society, outcaste,
   outlaw, pariah, persona non grata, social outcast,
   unacceptable person, undesirable, untouchable



Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Ishmael
   God hears. (1.) Abraham's eldest son, by Hagar the concubine
   (Gen. 16:15; 17:23). He was born at Mamre, when Abraham was
   eighty-six years of age, eleven years after his arrival in
   Canaan (16:3; 21:5). At the age of thirteen he was circumcised
   (17:25). He grew up a true child of the desert, wild and
   wayward. On the occasion of the weaning of Isaac his rude and
   wayward spirit broke out in expressions of insult and mockery
   (21:9, 10); and Sarah, discovering this, said to Abraham, "Expel
   this slave and her son." Influenced by a divine admonition,
   Abraham dismissed Hagar and her son with no more than a skin of
   water and some bread. The narrative describing this act is one
   of the most beautiful and touching incidents of patriarchal life
   (Gen. 21:14-16). (See HAGAR.)

     Ishmael settled in the land of Paran, a region lying between
   Canaan and the mountains of Sinai; and "God was with him, and he
   became a great archer" (Gen. 21:9-21). He became a great desert
   chief, but of his history little is recorded. He was about
   ninety years of age when his father Abraham died, in connection
   with whose burial he once more for a moment reappears. On this
   occasion the two brothers met after being long separated. "Isaac
   with his hundreds of household slaves, Ishmael with his troops
   of wild retainers and half-savage allies, in all the state of a
   Bedouin prince, gathered before the cave of Machpelah, in the
   midst of the men of Heth, to pay the last duties to the 'father
   of the faithful,' would make a notable subject for an artist"
   (Gen. 25:9). Of the after events of his life but little is
   known. He died at the age of one hundred and thirty-seven years,
   but where and when are unknown (25:17). He had twelve sons, who
   became the founders of so many Arab tribes or colonies, the
   Ishmaelites, who spread over the wide desert spaces of Northern
   Arabia from the Red Sea to the Euphrates (Gen. 37:25, 27, 28;
   39:1), "their hand against every man, and every man's hand
   against them."

     (2.) The son of Nethaniah, "of the seed royal" (Jer. 40:8,
   15). He plotted against Gedaliah, and treacherously put him and
   others to death. He carried off many captives, "and departed to
   go over to the Ammonites."


Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's):

Ishmael, God that hears