D defs.my
Entry 3 senses Webster, 1913

Laity

/(lā"ĭ*ty̆)/ · La·i·ty · IPA /ˈleɪ.ə.ti/
01 n. The people, as distinguished from the clergy; the body of the people not in orders.
  1. 1.
    The people, as distinguished from the clergy; the body of the people not in orders.
    “A rising up of the laity against the sacerdotal caste.” Macaulay.
  2. 2.
    The state of a layman.[Obs.]
  3. 3.
    Those who are not of a certain profession, as law or medicine, in distinction from those belonging to it.