Definition of celibate in English:

celibate

adjective

1Abstaining from marriage and sexual relations, typically for religious reasons.
‘a celibate priest’
- ‘Large numbers did not marry at all, deciding to remain celibate, some for religious reasons, others, it has been suggested, due to a certain embarrassment about sex.’
- ‘Religious dress and grave goods were used to differentiate celibate priests and monks from ordinary secular men.’
- ‘The Boston archdiocese's official newspaper said this week the Roman Catholic Church must face the question of whether to continue to require priests to be celibate.’
- ‘Since priests are celibate, what does their sexual orientation have to do with it anyway?’
- ‘He said the priesthood should be open to both married and celibate priests and urged a full debate within the Church on what he described as a ‘very serious question’.’
- ‘Last night, in an address to bishops in Nigeria, Pope John Paul II insisted that priests must live celibate lives and avoid scandalous behaviour.’
- ‘He astonished his friends and family by attempting to become a celibate priest but two years of seminary studies persuaded him he lacked a vocation.’
- ‘The archbishop has said priests need not be celibate and that God's blessings were meant to be given through the family.’
- ‘The origins of this celibate American religious movement can be traced to Sayville, Long Island, New York, where Father Divine came to public attention in the 1920s.’
- ‘This may stem from the Roman Catholic view, where intimacy, even within the context of marriage, is considered a concession to base instincts, while sacred priests and nuns are celibate.’
- ‘He was to become a priest and lead the celibate life.’
- ‘Among the Armenians there are celibate and married priests.’
- ‘But they dismissed questions about whether married priests were an option, saying a celibate priesthood was not the reason for the shortage.’
- ‘What is more important, to allow people a better chance of getting to mass on Sunday or to keep priests celibate?’
- ‘In the east, the upper ecclesiastical echelons - patriarchs in particular - were recruited from monasteries and therefore were celibate, but ordinary priests were allowed to marry.’
- ‘Sonflowers says women from north of the Border have contacted them for support after having children with Scottish priests or long-term affairs with supposedly celibate clergymen.’
- ‘Living a simple life, being vegetarian, abstaining from cigarettes and alcohol, being celibate, and dedicating his actions to the welfare of all beings are ways in which a Buddhist monk tries to improve the world.’
- ‘The Shakers, for example, is one religious group that required its members to be celibate: the only new Shakers came from recruitment.’
- ‘A few celibate members live with their families for personal or professional reasons and are known as ‘associates’.’
- ‘And it includes persons who were celibate and still champions of marriage, such as Paul and our Lord.’
virginal, virgin, intact, maidenly, maiden, unmarried, unwed
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1. 1.1Having or involving no sexual relations.
  ‘a celibate lifestyle’
  ‘Maude Guérin plays a lone wolf detective in the Prime Suspect mold - a single woman on the Quebec City homicide squad whose celibate lifestyle is legendary.’
  ‘This is one example of the way technology has been harnessed to ensure that if a woman didn't want to get pregnant, she could take steps to ensure that this didn't happen, without opting for a celibate lifestyle.’
  ‘Mitropoulos, who appears to have led a largely celibate lifestyle, nevertheless seems to have known enough about love and lust to portray them unforgettably in music.’
  ‘Clearly this person is celibate or single, because there is no way anyone could get intimate with her without losing an eye.’
  ‘I hope for his sake he's single, or in a celibate relationship, or he'll be building up quite an audience soon.’
  ‘Single and celibate for 17 years, she loved her husband, but says she doesn't miss him.’
  ‘This annoys me no end, especially considering the piles of people I know who are perfectly desirable but single or celibate or virgins because of random situations.’
  ‘I know what it is like to be heterosexual, single, and celibate and it is tough.’
  ‘These broads have been forcibly celibate for decades after their husbands dump them.’
  ‘Single rats have been known to lead celibate lives in the comfort of domestic house attics for several months while the house occupants are unaware of their existence.’
  ‘However, I did not force my husband to remain as celibate as I had to be.’
  ‘Due to a personal spiritual quest, Radha's husband has remained celibate for 13 years.’
  ‘Single women in this context were assumed to be celibate.’
  ‘Single men were 20 times more likely to be celibate than married men.’
  ‘If you're single, or have made a conscious decision to be celibate, you may be quite happy without having sex for a while.’
  ‘You do need to look at the underlying reasons for your celibate marriage and how you want to proceed with your husband.’
  ‘I'm seeing more and more celibate relationships within marriage.’
  ‘A wholly celibate marriage is thus in principle quite conceivable, as is some variation of marriage between those more at home physically with those of their own gender.’
  ‘There is no agreement about the town he came from, his age at the time of the apparitions, whether he was married or a widower, or whether he and his wife had children or lived in a celibate marriage.’
  ‘Yet, extant research suggests that a significant minority of these individuals may choose to discontinue all sexual relations and become celibate for at least some period following their diagnosis.’
  unmarried, single, unwed, spouseless, wifeless, husbandless
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noun

A person who abstains from marriage and sexual relations.
‘he's attracted and attractive to women and yet he lives as a celibate’
- ‘The leaves are said to be invigorating and an aphrodisiac and, therefore, not to be used by celibates and ascetics.’
- ‘So common was lifelong celibacy and so little accepted were Freudian theories about the dominance of the sexual impulse, that nobody questioned these celibates or looked at them askance.’
- ‘People over 60 are expected to be sexless creatures or, at any rate, celibates.’
- ‘To test the ludicrousness of that line of thinking, imagine what it would be like if we were all God-fearing celibates.’
- ‘The majority of partnered celibates started out having satisfactory relationships, but slowly stopped having sex as time went on.’
- ‘The celibates, when they did consider beginning a relationship, were the most cautious.’
- ‘While celibates, particularly females, were equally fearful, personal and religious morality were their main reasons for this lifestyle choice; HIV / AIDS concern was secondary.’
- ‘Among the Milanese aristocracy in the years 1600-49, for instance, the percentage of celibates, men and women, is stunning: 49 per cent of the men, 75 per cent of the women.’
- ‘In September 1998, one of the members of an on-line discussion group for involuntary celibates approached the first author via e-mail to ask about current research on involuntary celibacy.’
- ‘Thirty-five percent of celibates expressed dissatisfaction, frustration, or anger about their lack of sexual relationships, and this was true regardless of their partnership status.’
- ‘But, as anyone trying to become informed about the matter knows, there is no sociological evidence suggesting that celibates are more likely to abuse children than are married men.’
- ‘On the other hand, early Christian male celibates come in for rough treatment for their hatred of the body and ‘misogyny.’’
- ‘For the first six centuries of its existence, Cambridge, like Oxford, was a seminary, and until 1871 fellows were required to be celibates in holy orders.’
- ‘As all celibates do, they sometimes struggle with the vowed life, but if they find themselves too much at odds with chastity, they leave the order.’
- ‘And it seems odd for celibates, of all people, to instruct the rest of us about the relations of the sexes.’
- ‘Most current priests, he claims, aren't miserable as celibates, and they're no more emotionally immature than most men.’
- ‘I think what we might call the mystical strain in Christianity has always been extraordinarily important to me, and I think that's probably why this life suits me because I suspect I am probably a born celibate.’
- ‘He says at one point, for example, that it would have been highly unusual for a Jewish man in the 1st century to have been a celibate.’
- ‘This example is to be contrasted with that of the celibate who decides that the most fulfilling life for him will be one of abstinence.’
- ‘In any event, no one could accuse him of being a remote celibate who did not know what he was talking about.’
abstainer, recluse, hermit, solitary, anchorite, anchoress, desert saint, celibate, puritan, nun, monk
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