arch. Also 7 cælibate, cælibat. [ad. F. célibat, ad. L. cælibātus: see above.] State of celibacy; order of celibates.
1614. Bp. J. King, Vitis Palatina, 24. Solitude and celibate, a single monasticke life agreeth not to it.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., Malta, 319. Hildebrand … the great introducer of the Celibate of Priests.
a. 1711. Ken, Edmund, Poet. Wks. 1721, II. 238. Despairing, I in Celibate would live.
1839. J. Rogers, Antipopopr., xv. § 1. Has taken care of the celibate of the clergy.
1874. H. R. Reynolds, John Bapt., iii. § 2. 183. Not by preaching the glory of the celibate—that treason against the order of the universe.
fig. 1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), V. xlii. 173. The long celibate of German intelligence may seem designed by a superior Wisdom to crown it with inexhaustible fertility.
Hence Celibatic a., of or pertaining to celibacy; Celibatist, a professed supporter of celibacy; Celibatory (rare) = CELIBATARIAN.
1881. Echo, 11 April, 1/6. The remnant of ‘celibatic superstition’ which even now hangs around some of our academical establishments.
1885. J. C. Jeaffreson, Real Shelley, I. 20. Compensation for the loss of celibatic freedom.
1829. Blackw. Mag., XXVI. 758. Elizabeth … was herself a celibatist.
1841. L. Hunt, Seer, II. (1864), 5. A lone lodger, a celibatory.
