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Definition
an offensive term for a person who does not acknowledge the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam — especially someone who grew up in a culture that is not familiar with those religionsMore rarely, heathen can refer to a person who lacks culture or good taste.
- "—can't any Christian judges an' lawyers make up for heathen juries," Jem muttered.Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird
heathen = (offensive term for) people who do not believe in God
- Well now, she continued, several evenings later, you don't think I paid much attention to the heathen?Alice Walker -- The Color Purple
- And so she cultivated a pious interest in heathens.Alice Walker -- The Color Purple
- 'em he's a little heathen.James Vance Marshall -- Walkabout
- Within a year everything as far as me and the heathen were concerned ran like clockwork.Alice Walker -- The Color Purple
- We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the POOR HEATHEN!Frederick Douglass -- The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- A priest once called me a bonehead heathen, and I never returned.Luis J. Rodriguez -- Always Running
- The offspring of a race of heathens, he has in truth been 'as a brand plucked from the burning.'James Fenimore Cooper -- The Pioneers
- "Heathen," she chirps but shuts the door all the same.Erich Maria Remarque -- All Quiet on the Western Front
- Thou shalt laugh all the heathen to scorn.Richard Adams -- Watership Down
- Aristophanes was a heathen; and you, Juan, I am afraid, are very little better.George Bernard Shaw -- Man And Superman
- Tell them I'll sacrifice them for the sake of heathens if they don't get up!Henry Roth -- Call It Sleep
- Evil men and all the heathen who in their blindness bowed to wood and stone were thrown into a fire that burned like palm-oil.Chinua Achebe -- Things Fall Apart
- And he will bring the peoples of the heathen under his yoke to serve him....Lew Wallace -- Ben Hur
- "Are you a heathen god of some sort?" she asked.Terry Pratchett -- Nation
- It corrects your heathen state morality with a little Christianity, a little 'individual rights,' a little so-called freedom, that is all.Thomas Mann -- The Magic Mountain
- He was backed up against a corner of the house of his betrothed and swearing like a heathen.Victor Hugo -- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- You want a rest cure and a hiding place; Miss Brinklow feels a call to evangelize the heathen Tibetan.James Hilton -- Lost Horizon
- Still, we aren't Janizaries, we aren't heathens, we won't drive you out into the forest to be eaten by bears.Boris Pasternak -- Doctor Zhivago
- "T'ain't fitting a heathen should read the Word of God," she said.Katherine Paterson -- Jacob Have I Loved
heathen = an offensive term for a person who does not acknowledge the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam — especially someone who grew up in a culture that is not familiar with those religions
heathens = an offensive term for people who do not acknowledge the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam
heathen = an offensive term for a person who does not acknowledge the God of Christianity and Judaism and Islam — especially someone who grew up in a culture that is not familiar with those religions