(1) the strictest branch of the Franciscan Order of Monks, so called from wearing a girdle of knotted cord; (2) also a club during the French Revolution, founded in 1789, its prominent members, Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Marat; was a secession from the Jacobin Club, which was thought lukewarm, and met in what had been a convent of the Cordeliers monks; it expired with Danton.