stoical, a.
(ˈstəʊɪkəl)
Also 6–7 -all, and with capital initial.
[f. L. stōic-us (see prec.) + -al1.]
1. Of or belonging to the Stoics; characteristic of the Stoic philosophy.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) IV. 205 This Cato was a philosophre of the stoicalle secte. 1586 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. 275 Standing much upon that stoicall opinion, that onely a wise and good man is free, and that all wicked men are bond men and slaves. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ iii. ii. §10 Which consequence is unavoidable on the Stoical Hypothesis of Gods being corporeal and confined to the World. 1778 Reid Ess. Active Powers Man iii. iii. iii. 218 We cannot but admire the Stoical system of morals. 1869 Lecky Europ. Mor. I. ii. 237 The stoical system of ethics was in the highest sense a system of independent morals. 1887 Mahaffy & Gilman Alexander's Empire xxvii. 253 Such was already the result of Stoical teaching on the world! |
2. a. Of temper or disposition, or its manifestations: Conformable to the precepts of the Stoic philosophy; characterized by indifference to pleasure and pain.
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxi. 3 A hart that is benommed with Stoicall hardnes ageinst greefs and trubbles. 1596 Lodge Marg. Amer. 74 Now let each of you bethinke him of mirth not of majestie, I will have no stoicall humor in this arbour. 1622 Peacham Compl. Gentl. i. 2 For hardly they are to be admitted for Noble, who..consume their light..in contemplation, and a Stoicall retirednesse. 1739 Cibber Apol. (1756) II. 31 My stoical way of thinking may be no rule for a wiser man's opinion. 1823 Scott Quentin D. vi, He looked around him in agony, and was surprised..to see the stoical indifference of his fellow-prisoners. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. ii. 99 The English nation would have looked on with stoical resignation if pope and papacy had been wrecked together. 1874 Green Short Hist. viii. §10 We feel his [Milton's] inmost temper in the stoical self⁓repression which gives its dignity to his figures. |
b. Of a person: Resembling a Stoic in austerity, indifference to pleasure and pain, repression of all feeling, and the like.
| 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 83 If I should vtterly deny all kinde of such playes, then shoulde I bee thought too stoicall and precise. 1589 Nashe Anat. Absurd. B 1 b, Antient antiquitie was woont to bee such a stoycall obseruer of continencie, that women were not permitted so much as to kisse their Kinsmen. 1596 Warner Alb. Eng. xi. lxi. (1602) 268 Nor was he stoicall in ought, but affable in all. 1612 Selden Illustr. Drayton's Poly-olb. viii. 132 The Scythian was..so Stoicall, as not to care for the future, hauing prouision for the present. 1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies 66 He is too stoicall that is wholly for his cell, and nothing for the world. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Essex (1662) 332 One saith of him [Wm. Gilbert] that he was Stoicall, but not Cynicall, which I understand Reserv'd, but not Morose. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 170 He was a different man from the reserved and stoical William whom the multitude supposed to be destitute of human feelings. 1855 Prescott Philip II, I. i. i. 7 Every one, even the most stoical, was touched by this..scene. 1891 Hardy Tess xxxiii, She had much questioned if they would appear at the parting moment; but there they were, stoical and staunch to the last. |
Hence ˈstoicalness.
| 1727 Bailey vol. II, Stoicalness, a holding the Principles of the Stoicks, that wise Men ought to be free from Passions, and that all Things were governed by Fate. 1818 in Todd. |