Wildean, a.
(ˈwaɪldɪən)
[f. the name of Oscar Wilde (see below) + -an.]
Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the Irish writer Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854–1900), or his works.
| 1924 Nation 26 Mar. 352/1 Epigrams are his undoing. The Wildean nineties are in his blood. 1937 Scrutiny V. 386 Ravel is Wildean, ‘witty’ in the nineteenth century salon. 1958 R. Williams Culture & Society ii. ii. 171 A good example of the Wildean paradox. 1967 Listener 6 July 15/1 Social morality is turned on its head with a Wildean comment on one of the film's less violent fatalities: ‘Marie's tragic death restored my faith in suicide.’ 1977 Time 21 Feb. 28/3 They are cold, loveless creatures, incapable of responding to one another except by lobbing epigrams, Wildean in rhythm but not in wit, back and forth. |