Religious \Re*li"gious\, n.
   A person bound by monastic vows, or sequestered from secular
   concern, and devoted to a life of piety and religion; a monk
   or friar; a nun. --Addison.
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	Religious \Re*li"gious\ (r?-l?j"?s), a. [OF. religius,
   religious, F. religieux, from L. religiosus. See Religion.]
   1. Of or pertaining to religion; concerned with religion;
      teaching, or setting forth, religion; set apart to
      religion; as, a religious society; a religious sect; a
      religious place; religious subjects, books, teachers,
      houses, wars.
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            Our law forbids at their religious rites
            My presence.                          --Milton.
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   2. Possessing, or conforming to, religion; pious; godly; as,
      a religious man, life, behavior, etc.
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            Men whose lives
            Religious titled them the sons of God. --Mlton
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   3. Scrupulously faithful or exact; strict.
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            Thus, Indianlike,
            Religious in my error, I adore
            The sun, that looks upon his worshiper. --Shak.
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   4. Belonging to a religious order; bound by vows.
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            One of them is religious.             --Chaucer.
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   Syn: Pious; godly; holy; devout; devotional; conscientious;
        strict; rogod; exact.
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	religious
    adj 1: concerned with sacred matters or religion or the church;
           "religious texts"; "a member of a religious order";
           "lords temporal and spiritual"; "spiritual leaders";
           "spiritual songs" [syn: religious, spiritual]
    2: having or showing belief in and reverence for a deity; "a
       religious man"; "religious attitude" [ant: irreligious]
    3: of or relating to clergy bound by monastic vows; "the
       religious or regular clergy conducts the service" [ant:
       secular]
    4: extremely scrupulous and conscientious; "religious in
       observing the rules of health"
    n 1: a member of a religious order who is bound by vows of
         poverty and chastity and obedience

	

	157 Moby Thesaurus words for "religious":
   Christian, Christianlike, Christianly, God-fearing, Mariological,
   abbacomes, abbot, accurate, adoring, anthropomorphic,
   anthropotheistic, ascetic, attentive, awesome, awful, beadsman,
   believing, brother, caloyer, canonic, careful, celibate, cenobite,
   churchgoing, close, conscientious, constant, conventual,
   conventual prior, correct, cosmotheistic, critical, cultish,
   cultist, cultistic, deistic, delicate, demanding, detailed,
   devoted, devout, direct, ditheistic, divine, doctrinal, doctrinary,
   dutiful, ethical, even, exact, exacting, exigent, express,
   exquisite, faithful, fastidious, fine, finical, finicking, finicky,
   friar, fussy, godly, grand prior, heavenly, hermit, hieromonach,
   holy, honest, honorable, ineffable, inenarrable, inerrable,
   inerrant, inexpressible, infallible, inviolable, inviolate, just,
   lay abbot, lay brother, mathematical, mendicant, meticulous,
   micrometrically precise, microscopic, minute, monastic, monk,
   monotheistic, moral, narrow, nice, noble, numinous,
   overconscientious, overscrupulous, palmer, pantheistic, particular,
   physicomorphic, physicotheological, pietistic, pilgrim,
   pillar saint, pillarist, pinpoint, pious, polytheistic, prayerful,
   precise, precisianistic, precisionistic, prior, punctilious,
   punctual, refined, religieux, religiously exact, reverent,
   reverential, righteous, rigid, rigorous, sacred, sacrosanct,
   scientific, scientifically exact, scrupulous, scrutinizing, severe,
   solemn, spiritual, spiritual-minded, square, staunch, steadfast,
   strict, stylite, subtle, tender-conscienced, theistic, theological,
   tritheistic, true, undeviating, unerring, unspeakable, unswerving,
   untouchable, unutterable, upright, venerable, venerational,
   venerative, virtuous, worshipful