caste   (kāst)    n.   Any of the hereditary, endogamous social classes or subclasses of traditional Hindu society, stratified according to Hindu ritual purity, especially the Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra castes. A social class separated from others by distinctions of hereditary rank, profession, or wealth. A social system or the principle of grading society based on castes. The social position or status conferred by a system based on castes: lose caste by doing work beneath one's station. A specialized level in a colony of social insects, such as ants, in which the members, such as workers or soldiers, carry out a specific function. [Spanish casta, race, and Portuguese casta, race, caste, both from feminine of casto, pure, from Latin castus; see kes- in Indo-European roots.]

Caste

Caste\, n. [Pg. casta race, lineage, fr. L. castus pure, chaste: cf. F. caste, of same origin.]

1. One of the hereditary classes into which the Hindoos are divided according to the laws of Brahmanism.

Note: The members of the same caste are theoretically of equal rank, and same profession or occupation, and may not eat or intermarry with those not of their own caste. The original are four, viz., the Brahmans, or sacerdotal order; the Kshatriyas, or soldiers and rulers; the Vaisyas, or husbandmen and merchants; and the Sudras, or laborers and mechanics. Men of no caste are Pariahs, outcasts. Numerous mixed classes, or castes, have sprung up in the progress of time.

2. A separate and fixed order or class of persons in society who chiefly hold intercourse among themselves.

The tinkers then formed an hereditary caste. --Macaulay.

To lose caste, to be degraded from the caste to which one has belonged; to lose social position or consideration.

caste [(kast)]

One of the four hereditary social divisions in Hinduism. Members of any one caste are restricted in their choice of occupation and may have only limited association with members of other castes.

Note: Caste has come to mean a group of persons set apart by economic, social, religious, legal, or political criteria, such as occupation, status, religious denomination, legal privilege, skin color, or some other physical characteristic. Members of a caste tend to associate among themselves and rarely marry outside the caste. Castes are more socially separate from each other than are social classes.

Note: During the height of segregation in the United States, African-Americans were sometimes loosely referred to as a caste.

caste 

caste   (kāst)  Pronunciation Key  (click for larger image in new window) A specialized group carrying out a specific function within a colony of social insects. For example, in an ant colony, members of the caste of workers forage for food outside the colony or tend eggs and larvae, while the members of the caste of soldiers, often larger with stronger jaws, are responsible for defense of the colony.