monk

From Middle English monk, from Old English munuc, from Medieval Latin, Late Latin monachus, from Ancient Greek μοναχός (monakhós, “single, solitary”), from μόνος (mónos, “alone”).

• IPA^(key): /mʌŋk/
• Rhymes: -ʌŋk

monk (plural monks)

1. A male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service.
   • 1802, Joseph Ritson, “Poets of the Fifteenth Century”, in Bibliographia Poetica‎:

     This is believed to be the completeſt liſt of this voluminous, proſaick, and driveling monk, that can be formed, without acceſs, at leaſt, to every manuſcript library in the kingdom, which would be very difficult, if not imposſible, to obtain.

2. in earlier usage, an eremite or hermit devoted to solitude, as opposed to a cenobite, who lived communally.
   • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict‎:

     Tony's face expressed relief, and Nettie sat silent for a moment until the vicar said “It was a generous impulse, but it may have been a momentary one, while in the case of monk and crusader there must have been a sustaining purpose, and possibly a great abnegation, a leaving of lands and possessions.”

3. (slang) A male who leads an isolated life; a loner, a hermit.
4. (slang) An unmarried man who does not have sexual relationships.
5. (slang) A judge.
6. (printing) A blotch or spot of ink on a printed page, caused by the ink not being properly distributed; distinguished from a friar, or white spot caused by a deficiency of ink.
7. A piece of tinder made of agaric, used in firing the powder hose or train of a mine.
8. A South American monkey (Pithecia monachus); also applied to other species, as Cebus xanthosternos.
9. The bullfinch, common bullfinch, European bullfinch, or Eurasian bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula).
10. The monkfish.
11. (historical) A fuse for firing mines.

• See also Thesaurus:recluse

• monkette

• monastery
• monastic
• monasticism

monk (third-person singular simple present monks, present participle monking, simple past and past participle monked)

1. To be a monk.
   • 1990, Honoré de Balzac, ‎James Lewis May, & ‎Jean de Boschère, Ten droll tales, page 25:

     "Ah!" she cried, "thou art the prettiest little monk that ever monked it in this blessed, amorous town of Constance!"

   • 2002, David Pownall, Plays two - Volume 2, →ISBN, page 41:

     Good people, if you're ever short of a job, don't take up monking for a living.

2. To act like a monk; especially to be contemplative.
   • 1961, Snowy Egret - Volumes 25-30, page 74:

     Many a scholar, making wings of candlewicks to flap away old darkness, monked his life to fasting long while feasting upon new light.

   • 1971, Bill Amidon, Charge ...!, page 196:

     ...drinking: monking on a mountain: plodding in self-inflicted darkness so that the entrance into light would be heightened and supercharged: sacrifice and gain: the meek shall inherit the earth.

   • 2001, Kevin Everod Quashie, ‎R. Joyce Lausch, & ‎Keith D. Miller, New Bones: Contemporary Black Writers in America, page 482:

     Sometimes, in the joint, time gets long. It's best then to just sit and think. I call it "monking," because you can become so inspired, with revelations and understandings. After a monking spell, you may get angry in a strange way.

   • 2017, Neil McKenty, In the Stillness Dancing: The Journey of John Main, →ISBN:

     There were half-serious references to his 'going monking'; his new 'religion'; his grey habit; the magnificent house presented to the community in Montreal, etc. (“What price the vow of poverty, etc.”)

3. To monkey or meddle; to behave in a manner that is not systematic.
   • 2015, Tooty Nolan, Earplug Adventures: An Exaltation of Earplugs, →ISBN:

     The Avatar spoke gently as she responded to his jibe. "Now fucking get aboard and stop monking on like a schoolboy, you silly earplug.

   • 2008, Vereen Bell, Swamp Water, →ISBN, page 197:

     "You just go into the swamp and keep monking around, and maybe in a week er so, somebody'll open up and begin shooting at you, and if you live long enough to git curious about it, that'll be Tom Keefer."

   • 2016, Ring Lardner, Treat 'Em Rough - Letters From Jack The Kaiser Killer, →ISBN:

     ... because when a man is a corporal its all head work you might say and a man ought to keep their mind on their job evenings as well as day times and I felt like I couldn't do that and be monking with French at the same time...

4. To be intoxicated or confused.
   • 2011, Devon W. Carbado, ‎Dwight A. McBride, ‎& Donald Weise, Black Like Us: A Century of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual African American Fiction, →ISBN:

     I looked up from the thick cotton mat, unsure where my legs were. “She looks monked up.” “maybe her brain is damaged, huh, miss Bryant?”

   • 2015, Tonya Craft, Accused: My Fight for Truth, Justice, and the Strength to Forgive, →ISBN:

     She looked down at herself and said, “Oh, I got that from monking.” “From what?” “Monking. You ain't never done meth, girl?” she said.

5. To be attached in a way that sticks out.
   • 1981, Kalu Uka, A Consummation of Fire: A Novel, page 9:

     Molten roofing north, lead dripping down south, stand like those immobilized columns of arctic water west, stalagmites, monked and housed or stamped and dudleyed east, in school texts.

   • 1987, The Pioneer - Volumes 111-122, page 11:

     All these controls and screens are monked on to a massive network of computers that coordinates the sights.

   • 2014, Ken Babstock, On Malice, →ISBN, page 63:

     Those shelters formed chapels where aged forms of the implants monked out in built cells, little churchy cells that perished or grew plain, quivering and hidden from sight under alders.

• monke

From Old English munuc.

monk (plural monks)

1. monk
   • 1407, The Testimony of William Thorpe, pages 40–41

     And I seide, “Ser, in his tyme maister Ioon Wiclef was holden of ful many men the grettis clerk that thei knewen lyuynge vpon erthe. And therwith he was named, as I gesse worthili, a passing reuli man and an innocent in al his lyuynge. And herfore grete men of kunnynge and other also drowen myche to him, and comownede ofte with him. And thei sauouriden so his loore that thei wroten it bisili and enforsiden hem to rulen hem theraftir… Maister Ion Aston taughte and wroot acordingli and ful bisili, where and whanne and to whom he myghte, and he vsid it himsilf, I gesse, right perfyghtli vnto his lyues eende. Also Filip of Repintoun whilis he was a chanoun of Leycetre, Nycol Herforde, dane Geffrey of Pikeringe, monke of Biland and a maistir dyuynyte, and Ioon Purueye, and manye other whiche weren holden rightwise men and prudent, taughten and wroten bisili this forseide lore of Wiclef, and conformeden hem therto. And with alle these men I was ofte homli and I comownede with hem long tyme and fele, and so bifore alle othir men I chees wilfulli to be enformed bi hem and of hem, and speciali of Wiclef himsilf, as of the moost vertuous and goodlich wise man that I herde of owhere either knew. And herfore of Wicleef speciali and of these men I toke the lore whiche I haue taughte and purpose to lyue aftir, if God wole, to my lyues ende.”

• English: monk

From Old Frisian mong, mang, from Proto-Germanic *mangą (“crowd”). Compare English among.

monk

1. among

• monken