brethren

1. 1
   fellow membersnounfigurativelycountableplural

   The members of a group considered together, especially those of a fraternal, religious, or military order.

   The brethren of the lodge gathered in full regalia to install their new master.

   Cut off by the siege, the brethren of the order held the castle for another month.

   Similarmembers, fellows, comrades

   Note

   Here kinship is stretched by metaphor. Members of a lodge, a monastery or a military order are brothers to one another, and taken together they are the brethren. In this use the word has no singular and takes a plural verb (the brethren were assembled). A single member is simply a brother.

2. 2
   male siblingsnounarchaic

   Plural of brother.

   The farmhouse rang with the quarrels of five brethren, all sons of one mother.

   The Introit over, the service is interrupted for the feast. Contrary to the festive fashion of the nobles, who all sit with their swords beside them, here, in this feast of brethren, are no arms, not even a knife.

   1863, Jules Michelet, La Sorcière: The Witch of the Middle Ages translated by Lionel J. Trotter

   Note

   The irregular plural goes back to Middle English brether, which took its vowel from brēþer, the Old English dative singular of brother, and then added the plural ending -en. For the sons of one family it now reads as archaic: brothers is the everyday plural, while brethren lives on in the membership meaning.

3. 3
   male relativesnounliterarycountable

   The men of someone's family, related to them by blood or descent.

   Far from the hills of his brethren, the exile sang of the clan he had lost.

   The old chief summoned his brethren from every scattered branch of the family to the feast.

   Similarkinsmen, kin, kinsfolk, relatives

4. 4
   pacifist churchnoun · Brethrencountableplural

   Members of any congregation in the Anabaptist tradition of the Schwarzenau Brethren. They practice believer's baptism and hold to nonresistance and nonviolence, and some wear plain dress and avoid modern technology.

   The Brethren in the valley still worship in a plain meetinghouse and baptize new members in the creek.

   Because the Brethren hold to nonresistance, many of their young men refused to carry weapons during the war.

   Note

   With a capital B the word stops describing fellowship and becomes a church name. That name spans a whole family of congregations: any body in the Schwarzenau line counts as Brethren, and the Church of the Brethren is one of them. Theologians call their practice credobaptism, which means baptizing only people who profess faith for themselves, never infants.

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