monks

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of monk.

   The monks copied manuscripts by candlelight for years.

   Several monks lived in silence within the cloister walls.

   Note

   The regular plural, and it takes every meaning of monk with it. In earlier usage monks were hermits living alone, set against cenobites, who lived in community. Slang uses the word for loners, for unmarried men without sexual partners, and for judges. An archaic meaning, an inkblot, has nothing to do with religion. The same spelling serves the present-tense verb, so the sentence shows which is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of monk.

   Note

   A verb with a wider range than its noun suggests. Besides living as a monk or being quietly contemplative like one, it can mean meddling without any system, or being intoxicated or confused. Only one meaning takes a direct object: attaching something so that it sticks out. Otherwise it stands alone after a singular subject, as in he monks or she monks. That subject separates it from the plural noun.

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