caste

a class of society; a social status or system: a caste society

Not to be confused with:

cast – a group of actors: the cast for the play was chosen; mold or pattern; a tinge; to throw forcefully: cast the first stone

caste

(kăst)

1. Any of the hereditary, endogamous social classes or subclasses of traditional Hindu society, stratified according to Hindu ritual purity, especially the Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra castes.

2. A social class separated from others by distinctions of hereditary rank, profession, or wealth.

a. A social system or the principle of grading society based on castes.

b. The social position or status conferred by a system based on castes: lose caste by doing work beneath one's station.

4. A specialized level in a colony of social insects, such as ants, in which the members, such as workers or soldiers, carry out a specific function.

[Spanish casta, race, and Portuguese casta, race, caste, both from feminine of casto, pure, from Latin castus; see kes- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

caste

(kɑːst)

1. (Hinduism)

a. any of the four major hereditary classes, namely the Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra into which Hindu society is divided. See also Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, Sudra

b. Also called: caste system the system or basis of such classes

c. the social position or rank conferred by this system

2. (Sociology) any social class or system based on such distinctions as heredity, rank, wealth, profession, etc

3. (Sociology) the position conferred by such a system

4. (Zoology) entomol any of various types of specialized individual, such as the worker, in social insects (hive bees, ants, etc)

[C16: from Portuguese casta race, breed, ancestry, from casto pure, chaste, from Latin castus]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

caste

(kæst, kɑst)

n.

1. any of the hereditary social divisions of traditional Hindu society, as the Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Shudra.

2. an endogamous social group limited to persons of the same hereditary rank, occupation, economic position, etc., and having distinctive mores.

3. any rigid system of social distinctions.

4. social position conferred upon one by a caste system: to lose caste.

5. one of the distinct forms among polymorphous social insects, performing a specialized function in the colony, as a queen, worker, or soldier.

[1545–55; < Portuguese casta race, breed < Latin castus pure, chaste]

caste

1. A system of class differentiation based on Hindu scriptures.

2. A rigid class system based on common acceptance of a religious principle. For example, the ancient Indian caste system. Castes were defined in the Hindu religion. Membership of caste depends on birth, and movement between castes is only possible in some instances through marriage.

3. Any of several social classes into which a society may be divided, usually according to wealth, profession, or hereditary rank.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	caste - social status or position conferred by a system based on class; "lose caste by doing work beneath one's station" status, position - the relative position or standing of things or especially persons in a society; "he had the status of a minor"; "the novel attained the status of a classic"; "atheists do not enjoy a favorable position in American life"
	2.	caste - (Hinduism) a hereditary social class among Hindus; stratified according to ritual purity Hindooism, Hinduism - a body of religious and philosophical beliefs and cultural practices native to India and based on a caste system; it is characterized by a belief in reincarnation, by a belief in a supreme being of many forms and natures, by the view that opposing theories are aspects of one eternal truth, and by a desire for liberation from earthly evils social class, socio-economic class, stratum, class - people having the same social, economic, or educational status; "the working class"; "an emerging professional class" jati - (Hinduism) a Hindu caste or distinctive social group of which there are thousands throughout India; a special characteristic is often the exclusive occupation of its male members (such as barber or potter)
	3.	caste - a social class separated from others by distinctions of hereditary rank or profession or wealth social class, socio-economic class, stratum, class - people having the same social, economic, or educational status; "the working class"; "an emerging professional class"
	4.	caste - in some social insects (such as ants) a physically distinct individual or group of individuals specialized to perform certain functions in the colony bugology, entomology - the branch of zoology that studies insects animal group - a group of animals colony - a group of organisms of the same type living or growing together

caste

noun class, order, race, station, rank, status, stratum, social order, lineage Most of these people are from the socially-disadvantaged lower castes.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

طَبَقَةٌ خاصَّةٌ عِنْدَ الهِنْدوس

kastakastovní

kastekaste-

Kaste

casta

caste

kaszt

stétt

casta privilegio sociale

kasta

kastakastas-

kaste

kastakastový

kasttoplumsal sınıf

按照血统、阶级、财富等严格区分的社会制度社会等级种姓

caste

[kɑːst]

A. N → casta f
to lose caste → desprestigiarse

B. ADJ → de casta

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

caste

[ˈkɑːst] n → caste f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

caste

n → Kaste f; to lose caste → an Rang verlieren, absteigen; he lost caste with his friends → er verlor in den Augen seiner Freunde or bei seinen Freunden an Ansehen

adj attr mark, system → Kasten-; a high/low caste family → eine Familie, die einer hohen/niedrigen Kaste angehört

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

caste

[kɑːst]

1. n → casta

2. adj → di casta

caste

(kaːst) noun

a social class especially in India. the lowest caste; (also adjective) the caste system.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

"One of our generalizations is that every system founded upon class and caste contains within itself the germs of its own decay.

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In the simpler case of neuter insects all of one caste or of the same kind, which have been rendered by natural selection, as I believe to be quite possible, different from the fertile males and females,--in this case, we may safely conclude from the analogy of ordinary variations, that each successive, slight, profitable modification did not probably at first appear in all the individual neuters in the same nest, but in a few alone; and that by the long-continued selection of the fertile parents which produced most neuters with the profitable modification, all the neuters ultimately came to have the desired character.

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He was a Brahmin, so high-caste that caste ceased to have any particular meaning for him; and his father had been an important official in the gay-coloured tag-rag and bobtail of an old-fashioned Hindu Court.

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There must be some very serious motive at the bottom of it, and some justification of no ordinary kind to plead for them, in recovery of their caste, when they return to their own country."

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Sloughed from him was the last vestige of artificial caste--once again he was the primeval hunter--the first man--the highest caste type of the human race.

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To imprison these men without proof, and starve their kindred, was no harm, for they were merely peasants and subject to the will and pleasure of their lord, no matter what fearful form it might take; but for these men to break out of unjust captivity was insult and outrage, and a thing not to be countenanced by any conscientious person who knew his duty to his sacred caste.

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The change consisted in the appearance of strange faces of low caste, rather than in the disappearance of the high caste, chiselled, and otherwise beautified and beautifying features of Monseigneur.

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Mussalman - Sikh Hindu - Jain - low caste or high?'

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Hunsden unconsciously laid stress on the word caste, and, in fact, republican, lordhater as he was, Hunsden was as proud of his old shire blood, of his descent and family standing, respectable and respected through long generations back, as any peer in the realm of his Norman race and Conquest-dated title.

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One feels everywhere in it authority, unity, the impenetrable, the absolute, Gregory VII.; always the priest, never the man; everywhere caste, never the people.

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Casaubon, who had declared beforehand that Will would lose caste. "I never had any caste," he would have said, if that prophecy had been uttered to him, and the quick blood would have come and gone like breath in his transparent skin.

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Firm, faithful, and devoted, full of energy, and zeal, and truth, he labours for his race; he clears their painful way to improvement; he hews down like a giant the prejudices of creed and caste that encumber it.

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