Lazarus

proper noun

1. 1

   Lazarus of Bethany, a man raised from the dead by Jesus Christ and later in Christianity revered as a saint.

2. 2

   A beggar in a parable by Jesus Christ, traditionally (Christianity) thought to have been a leper and often conflated with Lazarus of Bethany.

3. 3

   rareA male given name from Hebrew.

4. 4

   rareA surname from Hebrew.

   Ken Cuccinelli tweaked the famous poem from Emma Lazarus – whose words, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” are long associated with immigration to the US and the nation’s history as a haven – as part of a case for strict new measures pushed Monday by the Trump administration that could dramatically change the legal immigration system.

noun

1. 1

   figurativeA person who was deceased and has been resurrected; a deceased person who could potentially be resurrected.

   This was the classic age of all the various exhumations, restorations, and resurrections; it was a retrospective time — a time of ghosts and Lazaruses, more or less decomposed.

   1870, Edmond de Pressensé, Annie Harwood Holmden (translator), The Early Years of the Christian Church, Book 3: First Century, page 462, Those who hear the voice of the Son of man and live, are so many Lazaruses called to the life divine.

   Finally, in whatever state or condition of life the faithful may find themselves, even if they cannot, like the apostles, assist the Lazaruses to rise from their tombs[…].

2. 2

   A poor person, a beggar.

   And do you not think, that all these poor Lazaruses, that you have persecuted, and do persecute, that when they die, they will not be carried into Abraham's bosom?

   These are the Lazaruses who lie prostrate at the gates of our cities and neighborhoods, and these are the needs that affluent Americans have conditioned themselves not to see because reaching out in any significant way would be far too costly.

   Do we respond to the poor Lazaruses in our midst with charity (scraps from our table), or do we seek to change the economic conditions that set up these extremes of rich and poor?

verb

1. 1

   To rescue a dying person.

2. 2

   To raise from the dead.

Forms

plural

Lazaruses

past tense

Lazarused

past participle

Lazarused

present participle

Lazarusing

third person singular

Lazaruses