christian
Noun · AdjectiveOpen English WordNet
Adjective (2)
- relating to or characteristic of Christianity“Christian rites”Relating to Christian religion
- following the teachings or manifesting the qualities or spirit of Jesus ChristOpposite unchristianSimilar christlike, christianly
Noun (1)christians
- a religious person who believes Jesus is the Christ and who is a member of a Christian denominationType of religious personKinds Catholic, Protestant, Arianist, gentile, Friend, Tractarian, Melkite, Copt, Adventist, Apostle +5 moreExamples Saint Titus, Saint TimothyMember of church, Christian church
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: L. christianus, Gr. …; cf. AS. cristen. See Christ.
1. One who believes, or professes or is assumed to believe, in Jesus Christ, and the truth as taught by Him; especially, one whose inward and outward life is conformed to the doctrines of Christ.
The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.— Acts xi. 26.
2. One born in a Christian country or of Christian parents, and who has not definitely becomes an adherent of an opposing system.
3. Church (a) One of a Christian denomination which rejects human creeds as bases of fellowship, and sectarian names. They are congregational in church government, and baptize by immersion. They are also called Disciples of Christ, and Campbellites. (b) One of a sect (called Christian Connection) of open-communion immersionists. The Bible is their only authoritative rule of faith and practice.
☞ In this sense, often pronounced, but not by the members of the sects, krīs′chan.
1. Pertaining to Christ or his religion; as, Christian people.
3. Pertaining to the church; ecclesiastical; as, a Christian court. Blackstone, Sir William
4. Characteristic of Christian people; civilized; kind; kindly; gentle; beneficent.
The graceful tact; the Christian art.— Alfred Tennyson
Christian Commission. See under Commission. — Christian court. Same as Ecclesiastical court. — Christian Endeavor, Young People's Society of. In various Protestant churches, a society of young people organized in each individual church to do Christian work; also, the whole body of such organizations, which are united in a corporation called the United Society of Christian Endeavor, organized in 1885. The parent society was founded in 1881 at Portland, Maine, by Rev. Francis E. Clark, a Congregational minister. — Christian era, the present era, commencing with the birth of Christ. It is supposed that owing to an error of a monk (Dionysius Exiguus, d. about 556) employed to calculate the era, its commencement was fixed three or four years too late, so that 1890 should be 1893 or 1894. — Christian name, the name given in baptism, as distinct from the family name, or surname.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: 1913 supplement
The Devil's Dictionary
I dreamed I stood upon a hill, and, lo! The godly multitudes walked to and fro Beneath, in Sabbath garments fitly clad, With pious mien, appropriately sad, While all the church bells made a solemn din -- A fire-alarm to those who lived in sin. Then saw I gazing thoughtfully below, With tranquil face, upon that holy show A tall, spare figure in a robe of white, Whose eyes diffused a melancholy light. "God keep you, strange," I exclaimed. "You are No doubt (your habit shows it) from afar; And yet I entertain the hope that you, Like these good people, are a Christian too." He raised his eyes and with a look so stern It made me with a thousand blushes burn Replied -- his manner with disdain was spiced: "What! I a Christian? No, indeed! I'm Christ." G.J.