/ English Dictionary |
OUTCAST
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person who is rejected (from society or home)
Synonyms:
castaway; Ishmael; outcast; pariah
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("outcast" is a kind of...):
unfortunate; unfortunate person (a person who suffers misfortune)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "outcast"):
heretic; misbeliever; religious outcast (a person who holds religious beliefs in conflict with the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church)
leper (a pariah who is avoided by others)
Harijan; untouchable (belongs to lowest social and ritual class in India)
Derivation:
outcast (excluded from a society)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Synonyms:
friendless; outcast
Classified under:
Similar:
unwanted (not wanted; not needed)
Derivation:
outcast (a person who is rejected (from society or home))
Context examples:
An outcast himself from the pack of the part-grown dogs, his sanguinary methods and remarkable efficiency made the pack pay for its persecution of him.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
In rapid succession we passed through the fringe of fashionable London, hotel London, theatrical London, literary London, commercial London, and, finally, maritime London, till we came to a riverside city of a hundred thousand souls, where the tenement houses swelter and reek with the outcasts of Europe.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Great God! If for one instant I had thought what might be the hellish intention of my fiendish adversary, I would rather have banished myself for ever from my native country and wandered a friendless outcast over the earth than have consented to this miserable marriage.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Nature seemed to me benign and good; I thought she loved me, outcast as I was; and I, who from man could anticipate only mistrust, rejection, insult, clung to her with filial fondness.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I am not absolutely such a fool and sensualist as to regret the absence of a carpet, a sofa, and silver plate; besides, five weeks ago I had nothing—I was an outcast, a beggar, a vagrant; now I have acquaintance, a home, a business.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Somehow, now that I had once crossed the threshold of this house, and once was brought face to face with its owners, I felt no longer outcast, vagrant, and disowned by the wide world.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)