symphonious, a. Only in literary use.
(sɪmˈfəʊnɪəs)
[f. L. symphōnia symphony + -ous, after harmonious.]
1. Full of or characterized by ‘symphony’ or harmony of sounds (symphony 2); sounding pleasantly together or with something else; concordant; harmonious: = harmonious 2.
| 1652 Benlowes Theoph. vi. lxix, All, what symphonious breaths inspire, all, what Quick fingers touch. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 559 The sound Symphonious of ten thousand Harpes, that tun'd Angelic harmonies. 1757 Gray Bard 119 What strings symphonious tremble in the air! 1784 Cowper Task iv. 162 The sprightly lyre..And the clear voice symphonious, yet distinct,..Beguile the night. 1835 W. Hay in Blackw. Mag. XXXVIII. 401 Whom the Muse taught to steal..Tones from the lyre symphonious with her own! 1841 Hor. Smith Moneyed Man I. viii. 226 Listening entranced to the symphonious music of the spheres. 1865 Trench Poems, Prize of Song v, At that melody symphonious Joy to Nature's heart was sent. |
b. fig. or gen. Marked by ‘symphony’ or agreement (symphony 3); agreeing, accordant: = harmonious 1. Const. to, with. (Often with direct allusion to prec. sense.)
| 1742 Young Nt. Th. iv. 617 Future life symphonious to my strain, (That noblest hymn to heav'n). 1770 Langhorne Plutarch (1879) II. 793/2 The word menoikes..signifies what is symphonious to the mind, what soothes its weakness. 1813 Shelley Q. Mab vi. 41 Of purest spirits, a pure dwelling-place, Symphonious with the planetary spheres. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. vii. v. (1872) II. 295 Their life was not quite symphonious. 1878 Stevenson Inland Voy. 53 The shadows, the rich lights and the silence, made a symphonious accompaniment about our walk. |
2. Sounding together or in concert.
| 1816 T. L. Peacock Headlong Hall xi, In conjunction with the symphonious scraping of fiddles. 1862 Symonds in H. F. Brown Life (1895) I. v. 255 Strange inexplicable chords and combinations of symphonious instruments. |
3. Sounded alike: = symphonic 1 b. rare—1.
| 1786 Pinkerton Anc. Sc. Poems I. p. cxliii, Synorthographic and Symphonious Words. |
Hence symˈphoniously adv., harmoniously.
| 1764 [see mellifluent]. 1804 J. Grahame Sabbath 78 A thousand notes symphoniously ascend. 1842 G. S. Faber Prov. Lett. (1844) II. 223 [The Church] symphoniously declares..these things, as having only one mouth. |