Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Hermit

Her′mit (hẽr′mĭt), n. [OE. ermite, eremite, heremit, heremite, F. hermite, ermite, L. eremita, Gr. ἐρημίτης, fr. ἐρῆμος lonely, solitary. Cf. Eremite.] 1. A person who retires from society and lives in solitude; a recluse; an anchoret; especially, one who so lives from religious motives.

He had been Duke of Savoy, and after a very glorious reign, took on him the habit of a hermit, and retired into this solitary spot. Addison.

2. A beadsman; one bound to pray for another. [Obs.] "We rest your hermits." Shak.

Hermit crab (Zoöl.), a marine decapod crustacean of the family Paguridæ. The species are numerous, and belong to many genera. Called also soldier crab. The hermit crabs usually occupy the dead shells of various univalve mollusks. See Illust. of Commensal. — Hermit thrush (Zoöl.), an American thrush (Turdus Pallasii), with retiring habits, but having a sweet song. — Hermit warbler (Zoöl.), a California wood warbler (Dendroica occidentalis), having the head yellow, the throat black, and the back gray, with black streaks.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.