spectre, n.
(ˈspɛktə(r))
Also 7– specter (now U.S.).
[a. F. spectre (16th cent., = It. spettro, Sp. and Pg. espectro), or ad. L. spectrum, f. specĕre to look, see.]
1. a. An apparition, phantom, or ghost, esp. one of a terrifying nature or aspect.
| 1605 Z. Jones (title), A Treatise of Specters or straunge Sights, Visions and Apparitions appearing sensibly unto men. 1641 Lords Spiritual 15 Thus this great Goliah being handled, appeareth..rather a ghost and specter, then a body. 1703 Pope Thebais 133 Swift as she pass'd, the flitting ghosts withdrew, And the pale spectres trembled at her view. 1744 Harris Three Treat. Wks. (1841) 40 The superstitious have not a more previous tendency to be frightened at the sight of spectres,..than [etc.]. 1813 Scott Trierm. ii. Interlude i, How should I, so humbly born, Endure the graceful spectre's scorn? 1862 Macm. Mag. Apr. 507 The simple..explanation of spectres is that they are our own thoughts. 1871 Palgrave Lyr. Poems 37 A terror..As when a sudden spectre at mid-day Meets us. |
b. fig. An unreal object of thought; a phantasm of the brain.
| 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 53 When the mind is taken up in vision, and fixes its view either on any real object, or mere specter of divinity. |
c. fig. An object or source of dread or terror, imagined as an apparition.
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 206 Death..is a spectre which frights us at a distance. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. i. iv, That same cloud-capt, fire-breathing Spectre of Democracy. 1856 Kingsley Lett. (1878) I. 500 The glaring eye of the dark spectre of bereavement. 1893 Black & White 29 July 122/2 The Channel Tunnel spectre is laid. |
d. transf. One whose appearance is suggestive of an apparition or ghost.
| 1807–8 W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 352 [She is] a mere house⁓hold spectre, neither giving nor receiving enjoyment. 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 362 A creature like you—a spectre—..to talk about seeking your fortune! 1891 Marie A. Brown tr. Runeberg's Nadeschda 50 Ever since a spectre From place to place he wanders. |
e. A faint shadow or imitation
of something.
| 1849 C. Brontë Shirley xxiv, With the strangest spectre of a laugh. |
2. One of the images or semblances supposed by the Epicurean school to emanate from corporeal things.
| 1785 Reid Intell. Powers 26 The spectres of Epicurus were composed of a very subtle matter. 1834 Southey Doctor v. 11 The old atomists supposed that the likenesses or spectres of corporeal things..assail the soul when she ought to be at rest. |
3. An image or phantom produced by reflection or other natural cause.
| 1801 Encycl. Brit. Suppl. II. 514/2 Spectre of the Broken, a curious phenomenon observed on the summit of the Broken. 1832 Brewster Natural Magic vi. 148 It is only within the last forty years that science has brought these atmospherical spectres within the circle of her dominion. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. ii. 22 Before each of us..stood a spectral image of a man... We stretched forth our arms; the spectres did the same. 1908 [Miss Fowler] Betw. Trent & Ancholme 299, I must look again for this aerial and charming spectre. |
4. Zool. One or other of the insects or animals distinguished by the epithet
spectre- (see 7),
esp. an insect of the family
Phasmidae.
| 1797 Trans. Linn. Soc. IV. 190 This singular animal [sc. Phasma dilatatum]..belongs to that tribe of insects which Stoll has called by the title of Spectres. 1815 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. iii. (1818) I. 67 note, Orthoptera consisting of Cockroaches, Locusts,..Spectres, Mantes, &c. 1816 Ibid. xxiii. (1818) II. 328 The spectres..are distinguished by tarsi of five joints. 1880 Encycl. Brit. XIII. 152/2 Phasmidæ (Spectres, or Walking-Sticks). |
† 5. A horrid spectacle or sight.
Obs.—1| a 1763 Shenstone Elegies xxii. 68 To see my limbs..gash'd beneath the daring steel, To crowds a spectre, and to dogs a prey! |
6. a. attrib. (chiefly in sense 1), as
spectre-bark,
spectre-chimera,
spectre-doubt,
spectre-fashion,
spectre-horse, etc.
| 1817 Coleridge Anc. Mar. iii. xiii, Off shot the *spectre⁓bark. |
| 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. iii. vi. i, Through some section of History, Nineteen *spectre-chimeras shall flit,..till Oblivion swallow them. |
| 1799 Campbell Pleas. Hope ii. 263 Ye *spectre-doubts, that roll Cimmerian darkness on the parting soul! |
| 1822 Scott Nigel x, It were a shame to my household, thou shouldst glide out into the Strand after such a *spectre-fashion. |
| ? 186. B. Harte Friar Pedro's Ride in Fiddletown, etc. (1873) 112 A phantom friar, on a *spectre horse. |
| 1805 Scott Last Minstr. vi. xxvi, Like him..Who spoke the *spectre-hound in Man. |
| c 1820 S. Rogers Italy (1839) 118 He had so oft beheld..The *spectre⁓knight. |
| 1825 J. Wilson Poems II. 305 While stern beneath the chancel high, My country's *spectre monarch stood. |
| 1777 Warton Poems 61 We bid those *spectre-shapes avaunt. |
| 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. iii. xiv, Off darts the *Spectre⁓ship. |
| 1807 Byron Childish Recoll. 7 What grisly forms, the *spectre-train of woe, Bid shuddering Nature shrink beneath the blow. |
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxi. (1818) II. 220 The *Spectre tribe..go still further in this mimicry. |
| 1817 Coleridge Anc. Mar. iii. x. marg. note, The *Spectre-Woman and her Death-mate. |
b. Comb., chiefly in similative
adjs., as
spectre-faint,
spectre-lean,
spectre-like (also
adv.),
spectre-looking,
spectre-pale,
spectre-pallid,
spectre-staring,
spectre-thin; also
spectre-haunted,
spectre-mongering (
adjs.),
spectre-queller.
| 1924 R. Graves Mock Beggar Hall 5 The exiled Alcibiades Beheld him in the Chersonese, Yet *spectre⁓faint. |
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. viii, At worst as a *spectre⁓fighting Man, nay who will one day be a Spectre-queller. |
| 1718 Rowe tr. Lucan 303 No Swain thy *Spectre-haunted Plain shou'd know. 1873 E. Brennan Witch Nemi, etc. 78 That dark land and spectre-haunted grove. |
| 1887 Meredith Ballads & P. 85 He came out of miracle cloud, Lightning-swift and *spectre-lean. |
| 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 258 Not making quite so staring a *Spectre-like Figure as I did. 1834 Tait's Mag. I. 726/1 Spectre-like they stray, And soon their steps in distance die away. 1884 J. Colborne Hicks Pasha 41 The camels glided noiselessly and spectre-like over the track. |
| 1849–50 Alison Hist. Europe VIII. lv. §24. 580 With a few thousand miserable and *spectre-looking followers. |
| 1809 Byron Bards & Rev. 919 Let *spectre-mongering Lewis aim..To rouse the galleries. |
| 1928 V. Woolf Orlando v. 233 The *spectre-pale beech trees. |
| 1844 Hood Haunted House iii. ix, But from their tarnish'd frames dark Figures gaz'd, And Faces *spectre-pallid. 1831 *Spectre-queller [see spectre-fighting above]. |
| 1826 Milman A. Boleyn (1827) 72 Thy tossing, feverish, *spectre-staring midnights. |
| 1820 Keats Ode to Nightingale 26 Where youth grows pale, and *spectre-thin, and dies. |
7. Special combs.:
spectre-bat, a tropical species of bat (
Vespertilio or
Phyllostoma spectrum);
spectre-candle (see
quot.);
spectre-crab, a glass-crab (
Cent. Dict.);
spectre insect, an insect of the genus
Phasma (see 4);
spectre-lemur = spectre tarsier;
spectre-mantis = spectre insect;
spectre-shell (see
quot.);
spectre-shrimp, a slender-bodied amphipod of the genus
Caprella;
spectre tarsier, a small lemuroid animal (
Tarsius spectrum).
| 1781 Pennant Hist. Quadrup. II. 552 *Spectre Bat... Inhabits South America. 1827 Griffith tr. Cuvier V. 71 Phyllostoma Spectrum (Spectre or true Vampyre Bat). |
| 1835 Penny Cycl. IV. 172/2 Belemnite, Thunderstone, or Arrowhead..: we..find the term Devil's fingers bestowed on them, and not unfrequently that of *spectre-candles. |
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. 90 The largest egg known..is that of a *spectre insect (Phasma dilatatum), figured in the Linnean Transactions. 1886 Geikie Class-Bk. Geol. 359 Spectre-insects (Phasmidæ)..have been detected chiefly among the shales and coals of the Coal-measures. 1882 *Spectre-lemur [see tarsier]. |
| 1840 F. D. Bennett Whaling Voy. I. 343 The insects we found here were the *spectre⁓mantis; a purple butterfly [etc.]. |
| 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl., Concha spectrorum, the *spectre shell, a name given by authors to a species of voluta, from some odd figures described on its surface [etc.]. |
| 1882 Cassell's Nat. Hist. VI. 212 The popular name of *Spectre, or Skeleton Shrimp, seems very appropriate. |
| 1871 Ibid. I. 250 The *Spectre Tarsier, which inhabits the Oriental Archipelago and the Philippine Islands. |
Hence
ˈspectre v. trans., to fill with spectres;
ˈspectredom, the realm or region of spectres.
| 1849 Aytoun Old Camp ii, It hath a look that makes me old, and spectres time again. 1883 J. S. Stallybrass tr. Grimm's Teutonic Myth. III. 930 Part and parcel of this heathenish spectredom. 1897 Daily Tel. 20 July 7/3 The tyranny of the manager of spectredom. |