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Definition of Tonsure
1. Verb. Shave the head of a newly inducted monk.
2. Noun. The shaved crown of a monk's or priest's head.
3. Noun. Shaving the crown of the head by priests or members of a monastic order.
Definition of Tonsure
1. n. The act of clipping the hair, or of shaving the crown of the head; also, the state of being shorn.
Definition of Tonsure
1. Verb. (Christianity) To subject to the often ritual shaving of the crown of the head as a sign of humility and one's religious vocation. Some tonsures were more dramatic than others, leaving only a fringe of hair. Abolished by Vatican II in the Roman Catholic Church. ¹
2. Noun. The bald patch resulting from being tonsured. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Tonsure
1. to shave the head of [v -SURED, -SURING, -SURES]
Medical Definition of Tonsure
1. 1. The act of clipping the hair, or of shaving the crown of the head; also, the state of being shorn. 2. The first ceremony used for devoting a person to the service of God and the church; the first degree of the clericate, given by a bishop, abbot, or cardinal priest, consisting in cutting off the hair from a circular space at the back of the head, with prayers and benedictions; hence, entrance or admission into minor orders. The shaven corona, or crown, which priests wear as a mark of their order and of their rank. Origin: F, fr. L. Tonsura a shearing, clipping, from tondere, tonsum, to shear, shave; cf. Gr. To gnaw; perhaps akin to Gr. To cut, and E. Tome. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Tonsure
Literary usage of Tonsure
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities: Comprising the History, Institutions by William Smith, Samuel Cheetham (1880)
"The act of tonsure was solemnly performed by the bishop in the case of clergy,
by the abbat in the case of a monk entering a monastery, the . monkish corona ..."
2. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: Embracing by Johann Jakob Herzog, Philip Schaff, Albert Hauck (1911)
"tonsure : In Roman Catholic usage, a round- shaven spot on the top of the head
which serves to distinguish clerics from laymen. ..."
3. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and (1911)
"The . reception of the tonsure in these churches is the initial ceremony which marks
... 490) alludes to the tonsure as in use among the (Western) monks, ..."
4. Celtic Britain by JOHN. RHYS (1904)
"its practices, the druidic tonsure was one of the differences which it wished to
be rid of. The Irish Church began to conform in this matter of hair-cutting ..."
5. Celtic Britain by John Rhys (1882)
"of these islands conforming more completely with its practices, the druidic
tonsure was one of the differences which it wished to be rid of. ..."
6. Social Life of the Chinese: With Some Account of the Religious, Governmental by Justus Doolittle (1865)
"The tonsure and the Cue Badges of Servitude to the Manchu Tartars. ... THE tonsure
of the common people and mandarins, in distinction from the tonsure of ..."
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