/men"di keuhnt/ , adj.
1. begging; practicing begging; living on alms.
2. pertaining to or characteristic of a beggar.
n.
3. a person who lives by begging; beggar.
4. a member of any of several orders of friars that originally forbade ownership of property, subsisting mostly on alms.
[ 1425-75; late ME mendicant- (s. of mendicans ), prp. of mendicare to beg, equiv. to mendic ( us ) beggarly, needy + -ant- -ANT ]