laity

3 definitions found

laity - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Laity \La"i*ty\ (l[=a]"[i^]*t[y^]), n. [See Lay, a.]
     1. The people, as distinguished from the clergy; the body of
        the people not in orders.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A rising up of the laity against the sacerdotal
              caste.                                --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The state of a layman. [Obs.] --Ayliffe.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Those who are not of a certain profession, as law or
        medicine, in distinction from those belonging to it.
        [1913 Webster]

laity - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  laity
      n 1: in Christianity, members of a religious community that do
           not have the priestly responsibilities of ordained clergy
           [syn: laity, temporalty] [ant: clergy]

laity - Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) :

  LAITY. Those persons who do not make a part of the clergy. In the United 
  States the division of the people into clergy and laity is not authorized by 
  law, but is, merely conventional.