n. [ AS. eáster, eástran, paschal feast, Easter; akin to G. ostern; fr. AS. Eástre, a goddess of light or spring, in honor of whom a festival was celebrated in April; whence this month was called in AS. Eástermōnað. From the root of E. east. See East. ] 1. An annual church festival commemorating Christ's resurrection, and occurring on Sunday, the second day after Good Friday. It corresponds to the pascha or passover of the Jews, and most nations still give it this name under the various forms of pascha, pasque, pâque, or pask. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The day on which the festival is observed; Easter day. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Easter is used either adjectively or as the first element of a compound; as, Easter day or Easter-day, Easter Sunday, Easter week, Easter gifts, Easter eggs. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sundays by thee more glorious break,
An Easter day in every week. Keble. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Easter day, on which the rest of the movable feasts depend, is always the first Sunday after the fourteenth day of the calendar moon which (fourteenth day) falls on, or next after, the 21st of March, according to the rules laid down for the construction of the calendar; so that if the fourteenth day happen on a Sunday, Easter day is the Sunday after. Eng. Cyc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Easter dues (Ch. of Eng.), money due to the clergy at Easter, formerly paid in communication of the tithe for personal labor and subject to exaction. For Easter dues, Easter offerings, voluntary gifts, have been substituted. --
Easter egg. (a) A painted or colored egg used as a present at Easter. (b) An imitation of an egg, in sugar or some fine material, sometimes made to serve as a box for jewelry or the like, used as an Easter present. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. (Naut.) To veer to the east; -- said of the wind. Russell. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Bot.) Any one of various lilies or lilylike flowers which bloom about Easter; specif.: (a) The common white lily (Lilium candidum), called also Annunciation lily. (b) The larger white lily (Lilium longiflorum eximium, syn. L. Harrisii) called also Bermuda lily. (c) The daffodil (Narcissus Pseudo-Narcissus). (d) The Atamasco lily. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. Relating to the money of the Easterlings, or Baltic traders. See Sterling. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Sterling. ] 1. A native of a country eastward of another; -- used, by the English, of traders or others from the coasts of the Baltic. [ 1913 Webster ]

Merchants of Norway, Denmark, . . . called . . . Easterlings because they lie east in respect of us. Holinshed. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A piece of money coined in the east by Richard II. of England. Crabb. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zoöl.) The smew. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Toward, or in the direction of, the east. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Coming from the east; as, it was easterly wind. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Situated, directed, or moving toward the east; as, the easterly side of a lake; an easterly course or voyage. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ AS. eástern. ] 1. Situated or dwelling in the east; oriental; as, an eastern gate; Eastern countries. [ 1913 Webster ]

Eastern churches first did Christ embrace. Stirling. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Going toward the east, or in the direction of east; as, an eastern voyage. [ 1913 Webster ]

. That portion of the Christian church which prevails in the countries once comprised in the Eastern Roman Empire and the countries converted to Christianity by missionaries from them. Its full official title is The Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Eastern Church. It became estranged from the Western, or Roman, Church over the question of papal supremacy and the doctrine of the filioque, and a separation, begun in the latter part of the 9th century, became final in 1054. The Eastern Church consists of twelve (thirteen if the Bulgarian Church be included) mutually independent churches (including among these the Hellenic Church, or Church of Greece, and the Russian Church), using the vernacular (or some ancient form of it) in divine service and varying in many points of detail, but standing in full communion with each other and united as equals in a great federation. The highest five authorities are the patriarch of Constantinople, or ecumenical patriarch (whose position is not one of supremacy, but of precedence), the patriarch of Alexandria, the patriarch of Jerusalem, the patriarch of Antioch, and the Holy Synod of Russia. The Eastern Church accepts the first seven ecumenical councils (and is hence styled only schismatic, not heretical, by the Roman Catholic Church), has as its creed the Niceno-Constantinopolitan (without the later addition of the filioque, which, with the doctrine it represents, the church decisively rejects), baptizes infants with trine immersion, makes confirmation follow immediately upon baptism, administers the Communion in both kinds (using leavened bread) and to infants as well as adults, permits its secular clergy to marry before ordination and to keep their wives afterward, but not to marry a second time, selects its bishops from the monastic clergy only, recognizes the offices of bishop, priest, and deacon as the three necessary degrees of orders, venerates relics and icons, and has an elaborate ritual. See also Greek Church, under Greek. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. an inhabitant of an eastern area; especially of the eastern U. S. [ WordNet 1.5 ]