n.
A person who renounces material comforts and leads a life of austere self-discipline, especially as an act of religious devotion.
adj.
- Leading a life of self-discipline and self-denial, especially for spiritual improvement. See synonyms at severe.
- Pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic; self-denying and austere: an ascetic existence.
[Late Greek askētikos, from Greek askētēs, practitioner, hermit, monk, from askein, to work.]
ascetically as·cet'i·cal·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
