Meanings
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1
noun
a member of the Religious Society of Friends, a Christian movement historically associated with pacifism, equality, and direct spiritual experience
The Quaker spoke about her community's long commitment to peace.
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2
adj
relating to Quakers, their beliefs, or their practices
The town preserves a plain Quaker meetinghouse built in 1760.
Thesaurus
Etymology
From quake + the agent suffix -er, literally 'one who trembles.' The name was applied in the seventeenth century to the movement around George Fox, traditionally after he urged a magistrate to tremble at the word of the Lord; the term had also been used of people who shook during religious fervor.