ˈhalf-bapˈtizev.
trans. To baptize privately or without full rites, as a child in danger of death.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > sacrament > baptism > kinds of baptism > private, for sick person > perform private baptism [verb (transitive)]
half-baptize1836
1836 Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. I. 14 He got out of bed..to half-baptize a washerwoman's child in a slop-basin.
1838 Dickens Oliver Twist I. ii. 16 The child that was half-baptized, Oliver Twist, is nine year old to-day.
1875 W. D. Parish Dict. Sussex Dial. (at cited word), If you please, sir, will you be so good as to half-baptize the baby?
Derivatives
half-baptized adj. baptized privately or without full rites; hence, semi-barbarous, (dial.) deficient in intelligence.
ΚΠ
1798 R. Southey Joan of Arc (ed. 2) I. ii. ii. 153 Irish Kernes, Ruffians half-clothed, half-human, half-baptized.
1875 W. D. Parish Dict. Sussex Dial. (at cited word), You must have been half-baptized to water those flowers when the sun was full on them.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1898; most recently modified version published online September 2016).
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