from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A social outcast: "Shortly Tom came upon the juvenile pariah of the village, Huckleberry Finn, son of the town drunkard” ( Mark Twain).
- n. An Untouchable.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. An outcast.
- n. A demographic group, species, or community that is generally despised.
- n. Someone in exile.
- n. A member of one of the oppressed social castes in India.
- n. A person who is rejected (from society or home).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. One of an aboriginal people of Southern India, regarded by the four castes of the Hindus as of very low grade. They are usually the serfs of the Sudra agriculturalists. See Caste.
- n. An outcast; one despised by society.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A member of a low caste of Hindus in southern India, lower than the regular castes of the Brah-manical system, by whom they are shunned as unclean, yet superior to some other castes in the Tamil country, where they constitute a considerable part of the population. The Pariahs are commonly employed as laborers by the agricultural class, or as servants to Europeans.
- n. [lowercase] A member of any similarly degraded class; one generally despised; an outcast from society; a vagabond.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a person who is rejected (from society or home)
The players of the paRai were of a low social order and the term pariah eventually became the descriptor for the lowest caste - the untouchables - in parts of Sri Lanka.
Members of the Paraiyar group—from which the word "pariah" is derived—performed menial labor and because they were considered unclean, lived outside of villages.
And as CNBC's Darren Rovell wrote on Monday, it means that Vick, not long ago considered a pariah, is now popular to the point that his No. 7 Eagles jersey is in demand.
John Kerry says that one reason America has become an "international pariah" is President Bush's decision to "walk away from global warming."
The Democratic Alliance earlier questioned Sorth Korean delegation led by Yang, saying it pointed to a pattern of friendships with so-called pariah states.
The country's formal diplomatic links were largely confined to a number of countries with whom apartheid South Africa had historical links, or with the so-called pariah countries.
Below the laboring caste there is a substratum which is termed pariah or outcast, and these degraded specimens of humanity are not better than animated machines performing the functions of public scavengers.
India, called pariah dogs; since the latter, although not owned by individuals, dwell in the villages, and of course associate with man.
Dog, anjing: those brought from Europe lose in a few years their distinctive qualities, and degenerate at length into the cur with erect ears, kuyu, vulgarly called the pariah dog.
It has already disturbed Pakistan, which is nearly being labelled a pariah, whereas India is being feted as the great hope for 21st century Britain.