1. [n]  a religious person who believes Jesus is the Christ and is a member of a Christian denomination
2. [adj]  following the teachings or manifesting the qualities or spirit of Jesus Christ
3. [adj]  (religion) relating to or characteristic of Christianity; "Christian rites"

1. \Chris"tian\, n. [L. christianus, Gr. ?; cf. AS.
   cristen. See {Christ}.]
   1. One who believes, or professes or is assumed to believe,
      in Jesus Christ, and the truth as taught by Him;
      especially, one whose inward and outward life is conformed
      to the doctrines of Christ.
            The disciples were called Christians first in
            Antioch.                              --Acts xi. 26.
   2. One born in a Christian country or of Christian parents,
      and who has not definitely becomes an adherent of an
      opposing system.
   3. (Eccl.)
      (a) One of a Christian denomination which rejects human
          creeds as bases of fellowship, and sectarian names.
          They are congregational in church government, and
          baptize by immersion. They are also called {Disciples
          of Christ}, and {Campbellites}.
      (b) One of a sect (called {Christian Connection}) of
          open-communion immersionists. The Bible is their only
          authoritative rule of faith and practice.
   Note: In this sense, often pronounced, but not by the members
         of the sects, kr[=i]s"chan.
   

2. \Chris"tian\, a.
   1. Pertaining to Christ or his religion; as, Christian
      people.
   3. Pertaining to the church; ecclesiastical; as, a Christian
      court. --Blackstone.
   4. Characteristic of Christian people; civilized; kind;
      kindly; gentle; beneficent.
            The graceful tact; the Christian art. --Tennyson.
   {Christian Commission}. See under {Commission}.
   {Christian court}. Same as {Ecclesiastical court}.
   {Christian era}, the present era, commencing with the birth
      of Christ. It is supposed that owing to an error of a monk
      (Dionysius Exiguus, d. about 556) employed to calculate
      the era, its commencement was fixed three or four years
      too late, so that 1890 should be 1893 or 1894.
   {Christian name}, the name given in baptism, as distinct from
      the family name, or surname.
   

3. \Chris"tian\, a.
   {Christian Endeavor, Young People's Society of}. In various
      Protestant churches, a society of young people organized
      in each individual church to do Christian work; also, the
      whole body of such organizations, which are united in a
      corporation called the United Society of Christian
      Endeavor, organized in 1885. The parent society was
      founded in 1881 at Portland, Maine, by Rev. Francis E.
      Clark, a Congregational minister. Christian Era \Christian
   

the name given by the Greeks or Romans, probably in reproach, to the followers of Jesus. It was first used at Antioch. The names by which the disciples were known among themselves were "brethren," "the faithful," "elect," "saints," "believers." But as distinguishing them from the multitude without, the name "Christian" came into use, and was universally accepted. This name occurs but three times in the New Testament (Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Pet. 4:16).