FRATERNITY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Fraternity

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/frətˈərnəti/ /frətˈərnɪti/ Listen

noun

Fraternity n. (pl. fraternities)

The state or quality of being fraternal or brotherly; brotherhood.

A body of men associated for their common interest, business, or pleasure; a company; a brotherhood; a society; in the Roman Catholic Church, an association for special religious purposes, for relieving the sick and destitute, etc.

Men of the same class, profession, occupation, character, or tastes. "With what terms of respect knaves and sots will speak of their own fraternity!"

A social club for male college undergraduates. They often have secret initiation rites, and are named by the use of two or three Greek letters. The corresponding association for women students is called a sorority.

Synonyms: frat.

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Etymology of 'Fraternity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fraternity" Quotes from Famous Books

... than the usual number on the bosom of my shirt. Mrs. Jones had been up on the evening before, half an hour after I was in bed, looking over my shirts, to see if every thing was in order. But even her sharp eyes had failed to discover the place left vacant by a deserting member of the shirt button fraternity. I knew she had done her best, and I pitied, rather than blamed her, for I was sensible that a knowledge of the fact which had just come to light would trouble her a thousand times more ...

— Trials and Confessions of a Housekeeper • T. S. Arthur

... ever-increasing intensity, like a good drama, until nearly his end. The American Revolution became an accomplished fact during his boyhood. Nearer home, events were fast coming to a focus, which culminated in the French Revolution. The magic words, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and the ideas for which they stood, were everywhere in the minds of the people. The age called for enlightenment, ...

— Beethoven • George Alexander Fischer

... press, the right of meeting in public, and representation in the national Cortes—the three fundamental principles of true liberty—are granted you. Speaking in the name of our mother, Spain, I adjure you to forget the past, hope for the future and establish union and fraternity." ...

— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 11, No. 24, March, 1873 • Various

... was no doubt that he had worked hard; he had taken all the chief prizes for oratory and essay writing and so forth that were open to him; he also allowed it to be seen that he was the chief person in the consideration of his class and the fraternity he had joined. Mary had a sort of humbleness about being the mother of ...

— In the Arena - Stories of Political Life • Booth Tarkington

... and down below to the wardroom, where we found Mr Neil Kennedy, the chief officer, Mr Alexander Mackenzie, the chief engineer, and Doctor Stephen Harper, the ship's medico, chatting and smoking together. To these I was introduced by Grimwood; and I was at once admitted as a member of the fraternity with ...

— The First Mate - The Story of a Strange Cruise • Harry Collingwood

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