a member of a religious order who is bound by vows of poverty and chastity and obedience
having or showing belief in and reverence for a deity; "a religious man"; "religious attitude"
concerned with sacred matters or religion or the church; "religious texts"; "a member of a religious order"; "lords temporal and spiritual"; "spiritual leaders"; "spiritual songs"
extremely scrupulous and conscientious; "religious in observing the rules of health"
(comparative and superlative of `early') more early than; most early; "a fashion popular in earlier times"; "his earlier work reflects the influence of his teacher"; "Verdi's earliest and most raucous opera"
earlier in time; previously; "I had known her before"; "as I said before"; "he called me the day before but your call had come even earlier"; "her parents had died four years earlier"; "I mentioned that problem earlier"
practicing great self-denial; "Be systematically ascetic...do...something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it"- William James; "a desert nomad's austere life"; "a spartan diet"; "a spartan existence"
pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic or the practice of rigorous self-discipline; "ascetic practices"