vertiginous, a.
(vəˈtɪdʒɪnəs)
Also 7 virt-.
[ad. L. vertīginōsus one suffering from giddiness, f. vertīgin-, vertīgo vertigo. So F. vertigineux, Sp., Pg., It. vertiginoso.]
1. Of persons, the head, etc.: Affected with, suffering from, vertigo or giddiness; giddy, dizzy.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. iii. i. i, Many phantasticall visions about their eyes, vertiginous, apt to tremble. 1653 Jer. Taylor Serm. for Year i. xix. 233 They grew vertiginous and fell from the battlements of heaven. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iv. 206 The former of these [damps]..makes the Workmen faint, and vertiginous. 1707 Reflex. upon Ridicule 136 The Head turns and grows vertiginous. 1787 Best Angling (ed. 2) 69 By these balls fishes are rendered vertiginous, and as it were intoxicated. 1808 Med. Jrnl. XIX. 299 The ocular spectra of objects..augment the disturbance of the eyes, and thereby add to the confusion of the vertiginous person. 1822–7 Good Study Med. (1829) I. 170, I have never been able to raise it [the drug] above seven grains without making the head stupid and vertiginous. 1906 G. Tyrrell in Life (1912) II. xi. 260 At first I was very vertiginous, but am slowly getting my nerves in hand. |
| fig. 1624 [Scott] Vox Regis 41 The heighth of prosperitie so amazeth the eyes of men, as it makes them vertiginous. 1687 Norris Misc., Disc. Rom. xii. 3 §19 If they can stand there without growing vertiginous,..they are still within the Region of Humility. |
b. fig. Giddy-minded; unstable or unsettled in opinions, etc.; inconstant; apt to change quickly; marked by inconstancy, instability, or rapid change.
Frequent in the 17th century.
| 1609 Bp. W. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 209 This vertiginous Vertumnus, whom Plato describes for an in⁓artificiall disputant. 1632 Burton Anat. Mel. (ed. 4) i. iii. i. ii. 185 Inconstant they are in all their actions, vertiginous, restlesse, vnapt to resolue of any businesse. 1681 Manton Serm. Ps. cxix. 20 Wks. 1872 VI. 190 Therefore take heed of being given up to this vertiginous spirit, to be turned and ‘tossed up and down with every wind of doctrine’. 1789 Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) II. 66 As all men and things are in the same vertiginous condition. 1841 Disraeli Amen. Lit. (1859) II. 378 The sphere of publication widened, in this vertiginous era. 1898 Bodley France iii. v. 271 When one thinks of the vicissitudes of those vertiginous days, it is not surprising that..sons of the Revolution [etc.]. |
2. Of the nature of, characterized by, vertigo.
| 1608 Topsell Serpents 76 Sluggish dulness, a giddy and vertiginous pace,..are sure arguments that Bees are not in good health. 1620 Venner Via Recta vii. 134 Fisticke Nuts..distemper the bloud, and being much eaten, often⁓times procure the vertiginous euill. 1699 Evelyn Acetaria (1729) 133 Mustard..strengthening the Memory, expelling Heaviness, preventing the Vertiginous Palsey. 1733 Cheyne Eng. Malady iii. iv. (1734) 327, I was suddenly seiz'd with a vertiginous Paroxysm. 1822–7 Good Study Med. (1829) I. 460 That staggering or vertiginous disease which is provincially known by the name of Dunt. 1854 Gilfillan Beattie p. xvii, Beattie was troubled with a vertiginous complaint. 1876 Clin. Soc. Trans. IX. 183 He found that if he closed his eyes the vertiginous feeling was mitigated. 1901 Brit. Med. Jrnl. No. 2092. Epit. Anc. Lit. 18 Vertiginous attacks became troublesome at times. |
| fig. 1626 T. Ailesbury Passion Serm. 13 Their theory was vertiginous, swom in the braine, there floating without anchor, and was of no credit with the will. 1642 H. More Song of Soul ii. iii. iii. 22 My strong-winged Muse feeble to slide Into false thoughts and dreams vertiginous. |
3. Liable to cause vertigo or dizziness; inducing giddiness. Also fig.
| 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. i. ix. 143 There..the station is least firm, the posture most uneasie, the prospect vertiginous. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 326 The Dervis and other Santoons..express their zeal by turning round,..and others I have seen in this vertiginous exercise at the Cavalcades. a 1701 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1721) 95 After they had by these vertiginous circulations and clamours turn'd their heads. 1865 W. Kay Crisis Hupfeldiana 78 If any one chooses to look further into this vertiginous subject, he may examine [etc.]. 1874 Stevenson Ess. Trav., Unpleasant Places (1905) 242 There is nothing more vertiginous than a wind like this among the woods, with all its sights and noises. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. vii. 796 It is generally necessary to avoid crowded rooms and the vertiginous influence of the dance. |
4. Of motion: Having the character of rotation or revolution; rotatory.
In some cases prob. implying the preceding sense.
| 1663 Baxter Div. Life 215 The thoughts of earthly fleshly things have power to delude men, and mislead them, and hurry them about in a vertiginous motion. 1690 Leybourn Curs. Math. 449 It is found to have a Vertiginous Motion about its own Axis. 1712 Blackmore Creation 251 So give the air impression from above, It in a whirl vertiginous would move. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 117 ¶10 That vertiginous motion, with which we are carried round by the diurnal revolution of the earth. 1766 G. Canning Anti-Lucretius iv. 323 We see, with whirl vertiginous, the Sun From west to east around his axis run. 1832 Nat. Philos., Electro-Magn. xii. §257. 80 (L.U.K.), The peculiar kind of movement..which Dr. Wollaston attributed to the electro⁓magnetic agent, and which he termed its vertiginous motion. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. iii. vii, It is the centre whereon infinite contentions unite and clash. What new universal vertiginous movement is this? 1883 Salmon in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 512 All the souls in hell and purgatory..who, in the earth's vertiginous double motion, must roll about like grains of coffee in a grocer's mill. |
b. Of an axis: Revolving, rotating.
| 1680 Counterplots 6 Whirl'd about with perpetual agitations upon the Vertiginous Axis of that Globe. |
Hence verˈtiginously adv., giddily, dizzily.
| 1766 G. Canning Anti-Lucretius v. 368 Which..to the centre of the cloud repair, And there..With furious rage vertiginously roll. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. xi. 2365 The smoothest safest of you all..Will rock vertiginously in turn, and reel, And, emulative, rush to death like me. 1886 Symonds Renaiss. It., Cath. React. (1898) VII. ix. 45 A new philosophy occupied his brain, vertiginously big with incoherent births of modern thought. |