altar boy

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altar boy

n. Christianity
A boy who is an altar server.
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.

altar boy

n
(Ecclesiastical Terms) RC Church Church of England a boy serving as an acolyte
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ac•o•lyte

(ˈæk əˌlaɪt)

n.
1. an altar attendant in public worship; altar boy.
2. any attendant, assistant, or follower.
[1275–1325; Middle English< Medieval Latin acolytus < Greek akólouthos follower, attendant]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.altar boy - a boy serving as an acolytealtar boy - a boy serving as an acolyte    
acolyte - someone who assists a priest or minister in a liturgical service; a cleric ordained in the highest of the minor orders in the Roman Catholic Church but not in the Anglican Church or the Eastern Orthodox Churches
boy, male child - a youthful male person; "the baby was a boy"; "she made the boy brush his teeth every night"; "most soldiers are only boys in uniform"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Mentioned in
References in classic literature
He went back to his place, and after that a priest and two altar boys came in and began to say mass.
A former altar boy abused by a priest has described a personal apology from a leader in the Catholic church as "some sort of justice".
THIS is the altar boy, Father John Tolkien by his side, allegedly molested by the priest after promises that it would see him anointed by Christ.
'I was once an altar boy here and I am now a cardinal, Bishop Casicas once an altar boy here and is now a bishop,' Quevedo said as the crowd applauded.
In high school, he was an altar boy. He served the Church in one of the parishes in Davao region.
One of his victims, former altar boy Peter Creigh, told the court he had described the abuse to Wilson in detail in 1976, five years after it took place.
Death of an Altar Boy: The Unsolved Murder of Danny Croteau and the Culture of Abuse in the Catholic Church
'I have been an altar boy since I was nine years old.
The charges emerged in May when 52-year-old Roy Taitague Quintanilla claimed that while he was an altar boy, Apuron had molested him.
"I used to be an altar boy and when he came in he used to pick the altar boys.
I, too, was an altar boy in my Catholic faith, my choice, not my mother's.
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