adamantine, a.
(ædəˈmæntɪn)
[ad. L. adamantin-us a. Gr. ἀδαµάντιν-ος adj. of material, f. ἀδάµας; see adamant.]
1. Made of, or having the qualities of adamant; incapable of being broken, dissolved, or penetrated; immovable, impregnable.
| 1382 Wyclif Jer. xvii. 1 The synne of Juda writen is with an irene pointel, in an adamantyne nail. 1590 Greene Mourn. Garm. (1616) 20 That set a fire with piercing flames euen hearts adamantine. 1599 Marston Sco. Vill. ii. viii. 211 Vnlesse the Destin's adamantine band Should tye my teeth, I cannot chuse but bite. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 39 To the end it might be a State Adamantine..that is, invincible. 1662 H. More Antid. agt. Ath. Pref. Gen. 26 (1712) These are the Adamantine Laws and Tyes of Religion. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 646 Three folds were brass, Three iron, three of adamantine rock. 1718 Pope Iliad ii. 581 To count them all, demands a thousand tongues, A throat of brass, and adamantine lungs. 1727 W. Mather Young Man's Comp. 68 Vertue is an Adamantine Mountain, and Invincible Fortress. 1817 Coleridge Biogr. Lit. 70 The adamantine chain of the logic. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 167, A risk which severely tried even the adamantine fortitude of Cromwell. 1865 Ruskin Sesame 129 The victorious truth and adamantine purity of a woman. |
adamantine spar, an old name of corundum.
| 1798 Greville Corundum in Phil. Trans. LXXXVIII. 403 The mineral substance from the East Indies which is generally called Adamantine Spar. 1874 Westropp Prec. Stones 59 When first introduced into the European atelier, some ninety years ago, it [corundum] was known by the name of adamantine spar. |
† 2. Having the qualities of the loadstone; magnetic. Obs.
| 1604 Dekker Kings' Entert. (1873) I. 269 All mens eyes were presently turned to the North..like the poynts of so many geometricall needles, through a fixed and Adamantine desire. 1641 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentl. 6 The eyes..those adamantine orbes which attract affection to us. 1655 Gouge Comm. on Hebr. xi. 15, iii. 59 The world hath an adamantine force to draw mens hearts to it. |