laity

in a sentence

Now that the King and you are in amity, Clergy and laity may return to gaiety, Mirth and —sportfulness need not walk warily, Thomas.†  (source) T. S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, 1935

There were clerks with neat little skull-caps to keep their tonsures warm, dressed in sober clothes which contrasted with the laity.†  (source) T. H. White, The Once and Future King, 1939

In so far as the daughter of these parents was concerned, and in the face of natural gifts which fitted her for something better than this world from which she derived, she was still, in part, at least, a reflection of the religious and moral notions there and then prevailing,—the views of the local ministers and the laity in general.†  (source) Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy, 1925

"A brilliant idea, and most true!" cried Lebedeff, "for he never even touched the laity.†  (source) Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot, 1900

Apart from her being what she is, of course, a luxury for a fogy like me, it will set me right in the eyes of the clergy and orthodox laity, who have never forgiven me for letting her go.†  (source) Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure, 1895

But Lydgate had not been experienced enough to foresee that his new course would be even more offensive to the laity; and to Mr. Mawmsey, an important grocer in the Top Market, who, though not one of his patients, questioned him in an affable manner on the subject, he was injudicious enough to give a hasty popular explanation of his reasons, pointing out to Mr. Mawmsey that it must lower the character of practitioners, and be a constant injury to the public, if their only mode of getting paid for their work was by their making out long bills for draughts, boluses, and mixtures.†  (source) George Eliot, Middlemarch, 1872

Viewed by this light it becomes a coherent scheme and not the monstrous maze the laity are apt to think it.†  (source) Charles Dickens, Bleak House, 1853

Mr. Collins listened to her with the determined air of following his own inclination, and, when she ceased speaking, replied thus: "My dear Miss Elizabeth, I have the highest opinion in the world in your excellent judgement in all matters within the scope of your understanding; but permit me to say, that there must be a wide difference between the established forms of ceremony amongst the laity, and those which regulate the clergy; for, give me leave to observe that I consider the clerical office as equal in point of dignity with the highest rank in the kingdom—provided that a proper humility of behavior is at the same time maintained.†  (source) Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813

"Mine honest friend," said he, "if the jangling of thy bells had not dizzied thine understanding, thou mightst know "Clericus clericum non decimat"; that is to say, we churchmen do not exhaust each other's hospitality, but rather require that of the laity, giving them thus an opportunity to serve God in honouring and relieving his appointed servants."†  (source) Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, 1820

I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America I did not meet with a single individual, of the clergy or of the laity, who was not of the same opinion upon this point.†  (source) Alexis de Toqueville, Democracy In America, Volume 1, 1835

When a breeze from the country that has lost its way takes fright and makes a blind hurry to rush out again, it flings as much dust in the eyes of Allegory as the law—or Mr. Tulkinghorn, one of its trustiest representatives—may scatter, on occasion, in the eyes of the laity.†  (source) Charles Dickens, Bleak House, 1853

"Sir Knight," answered the hermit, "your thoughts, like those of the ignorant laity, are according to the flesh.†  (source) Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, 1820

But not perceiving this quite plainly—only seeing it by halves in a confused way—the laity sometimes suffer in peace and pocket, with a bad grace, and DO grumble very much.†  (source) Charles Dickens, Bleak House, 1853