Tonsured

ppl. a. [f. prec. + -ED¹.]

  1.  That has received tonsure; hence, in orders.

1706.  trans. Dupin’s Eccl. Hist. 16th C., II. III. xxii. 395. By which, Tonsured Clerks … are exempt from Lay-Jurisdiction.

1827.  Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), I. ii. 58. The immunity of all tonsured persons from civil punishment for crimes.

1873.  M. Arnold, Lit. & Dogma (1876), 370. The cowled and tonsured Middle Age.

  b.  fig. Bald or partially bald.

1855.  Tennyson, Brook, 110. Bowing o’er the brook A tonsured head in middle age forlorn.

  2.  Clipped, as a yew or box. rare.

1837.  Howitt, Rur. Life, I. vii. (1862), 70. Walpole overturned this ancient fondness for pleached walks and tonsured trees.