ROSARY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Rosary

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/rˈoʊzəri/ Listen

noun

Rosary n. (pl. rosaries)

A bed of roses, or place where roses grow. "Thick rosaries of scented thorn."

(R.C.Ch.) A series of prayers (see Note below) arranged to be recited in order, on beads; also, a string of beads by which the prayers are counted. "His idolized book, and the whole rosary of his prayers." Note: A rosary consists of fifteen decades. Each decade contains ten Ave Marias marked by small beads, preceded by a Paternoster, marked by a larger bead, and concluded by a Gloria Patri. Five decades make a chaplet, a third part of the rosary.

A chapelet; a garland; a series or collection, as of beautiful thoughts or of literary selections. "Every day propound to yourself a rosary or chaplet of good works to present to God at night."

A coin bearing the figure of a rose, fraudulently circulated in Ireland in the 13th century for a penny.

Rosary shell (Zool.), any marine gastropod shell of the genus Monodonta. They are top-shaped, bright-colored and pearly.

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Etymology of 'Rosary'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Rosary" Quotes from Famous Books

... less terrifying to me could I so believe," she replied gravely, her eyes questioning my face, as if to read therein what answer I desired. "I have that about my person," and I marked that her fingers toyed with the beads of a rosary at her throat, "which would protect me ...

— Prisoners of Chance - The Story of What Befell Geoffrey Benteen, Borderman, - through His Love for a Lady of France • Randall Parrish

... was on her knees on the floor, with her rosary clasped in her hands, her arms and shoulders bare, and her dark hair hanging down her back, looked up, considerably startled: "Holy Mother! how you frightened me!" she exclaimed. ...

— The Beth Book - Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius • Sarah Grand

... institution that could give the movement unity and permanency. A meeting of the bishops and vicars of the Northern province was held at Kells (May 1642) under the presidency of Dr. Hugh O'Reilly, Archbishop of Armagh. They prescribed a three days' fast, the public recitation of the Rosary and the Litanies, and a general Communion for the success of the war, issued a sentence of excommunication against murderers, mutilators, thieves, robbers, etc., together with all their aiders and abettors, denounced the Catholic Irishmen who refused to ...

— History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance • Rev. James MacCaffrey

... veil was streaming back in the wind, and her rosary and crucifix beating about her shoulders with the hard riding, but her white face was brave with a divine trust. Yet even as she urged us I saw how imposible was her plea, for the men in front were ...

— Vanguards of the Plains • Margaret McCarter

... threads to the ring of Saturn and the belt of Orion! A body from the contemplation of which an archangel could infer the entire inorganic universe as the simplest of corollaries! A throne of the all-pervading Deity, who has guided its every atom since the rosary of heaven was strung with ...

— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

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