glorious, a.
(ˈglɔərɪəs)
Forms: 4–6 glorio(u)se, -ius, gloryous, (5 gloryowse, 6 Sc. glori-, gloryuss, glorous), 3– glorious.
[a. AF. glorious = OF. glorieus, -os, Pr. glorios, Sp., Pg., It. glorioso, ad. L. glōriōsus, f. glōria glory: see -ous.]
† 1. Boastful; ostentatious, fond of splendour; proud, haughty; vainglorious. Obs.
| 1382 Wyclif Prov. xxv. 14 A man glorious and the behestes not fulfillende. c 1440 York Myst. xvi. 19, I am fairer of face þan glorius gulles þat [etc.]. c 1530 Tindale Prol. to Jonas (1863) A vj b, Ande one y{supt} cast out deuels in Christes name they [the apostles] forbade because he wayted not on them, so glorious were they yet. 1577 J. Brooke Guido's Staffe Chr. Faith Pref., A soil and heape of glorious deceiuers, which hyde and boast themselues. 1612 Bacon Ess., Vaine-glory (Arb.) 462 They that are glorious, must needs be factious; for all brauery stands vpon comparisons. 1654 tr. Scudery's Curia Pol. 25 If they [Princes] are..gay and glorious, they are reviled as incompassionate. 1692 Dryden St. Euremont's Ess. 13 Whether..Posterity, glorious throughout, were desirous that their Ancestors should be Masters of Vertues, when they were not of Greatness. a 1734 North Exam. i. ii. §32. 46 After he was possessed of the Great Seal, he was in Appearance the gloriousest Man alive. |
† 2. Eager for glory. Obs.
| 1608 Shakes. Per. i. Prol. 9 The purchase is to make men glorious. 1621 Fletcher Pilgrim iv. ii, I am not watchfull to do ill, Nor glorious to pursue it still. 1704 Hearne Duct. Hist. (1714) I. 392 He always left such to Heroes as were purely Glorious. |
3. a. Of persons and things: Possessing glory; entitled to brilliant and lofty renown, illustrious. spec. As an epithet of: (a) the ‘First of June’, the date of a sea battle between the British and French in 1794, ending in victory for the British; (b) the ‘Twelfth’ of August [twelfth 1 c]; (c) (U.S.) the ‘Fourth’ (of July).
Now somewhat rare; the mod. use as applied to persons (e.g. in ‘Glorious John’ as a designation of Dryden) belongs to sense 5. (The AF. Coronation Oath of 1307 speaks of ‘le glorious Rei Seynt Edward’.)
| 13.. K. Alis. 7441 Now is ded kyng Porus, Alisaunder is kyng glorious. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 1 Grett glorious Godd, thurgh grace of hym selvene..Schelde us ffro schamesdede and synfulle werkes. c 1460 Towneley Myst. iii. 166 My name is of dignyte, and also full glorius. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 174/1 Saynt austyn preched a glorious sermone & declared there to the kynge the crysten feythe openlye. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxv. 91 Quhilk grant the glorius Trinitie! 1604 E. G. tr. D'Acosta's Hist. Indies i. i. 2 The glorious Crysostome (a man better seene in the studie of holy Scriptures, then in the knowledge of Philosophie). 1660 Blount Boscobel 1 Charles the Second undoubted heir of Charles the First of Glorious Memory. 1720–21 Swift Let. to Pope 10 Jan., Wks. 1824 XVI. 352, I will tell you what my political principles were in the time of her late glorious majesty. 1794 (title) Songs, Duetts, Choruses, &c. In a New and Appropriate Entertainment. Called The Glorious First of June. 1827 [see fourth a. 2 b]. 1841 Lane Arab. Nts. I. 88 He answered, O glorious King, it hath been said, by the ancients [etc.]. 1854 W. G. Simms Southward Ho! xiii. 253 Our dinner on the glorious Fourth was worthy of the occasion. 1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus xxxiv. 23 Still keep safely the glorious Race of Romulus olden. 1879 M. Arnold Poems of Wordsw. Pref. (near end), He is one of the very chief glories of English Poetry; and by nothing is England so glorious as by her poetry. 1895 E. G. Mackenzie In Grouseland xvii. 125 The glorious twelfth! Despite critical politics, the continuous fine weather and the certainty of sport has again filled all the saloon carriages bound northward. 1899 W. L. Clowes Royal Navy IV. xxxv. 230 (heading) The Glorious first of June. 1948 Miami (Okla.) Daily News-Record 4 July 1/5 Where are Miami's glorious fourths of yesteryear? 1966 Chambers's Encycl. V. 660/2 The Glorious First of June..the name given to a sea battle of the French revolutionary war. 1971 D. Ayerst Guardian xxx. 468 With the ‘glorious twelfth’ only three days off politicians were deserting Westminster for the grouse moors. |
b. Of an achievement, action, circumstance, state of things, etc.: Conferring glory; entitling to brilliant and lofty renown; conspicuously honourable. Const. to.
| 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. V, 49 For this day by famous death or glorious victory I wyl wynne honor. 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 36 It is glorious when the preachers are certaine of their doctrine which they teache. 1659 D. Pell Impr. Sea 56 It is one of the gloriousest works in the world, to have an hand in..the saving of a soul. 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 16 Which followed close upon the glorious Battel (but with small fruit) of Lepanto. 1709 Steele & Swift Tatler No. 66 ¶8 The great and glorious Victory obtained over the Enemy on the 11th Instant. 1774 Chesterfield Lett. (1792) I. ii. 5 As it is more difficult to express one's thoughts in verse than in prose, the being capable of doing it is more glorious. 1789 in Sir J. Sinclair's Corr. (1831) II. 282 The surrender of Oczakow, an event so remarkable in the history of Russia, and so glorious to the hero. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 147 He..declared that..he should think it glorious to die in his sovereign's cause. |
† c. In non-laudatory sense: Conducive to reputation. Obs.
| 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. v. iv. (1848) 309 And though a needless Ostentation of ones Excellencies may be more glorious, a modest Concealment of them is usually more safe. |
4. Splendid in beauty or richness of adornment. Now only with emotional connotation as in 5. † Formerly also in a weaker sense, of textures, colours, etc.: Brilliant, shining, lustrous.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 914 As þou art gloryous withouten galle. c 1315 Shoreham 128 The gloriouse beerde [sc. our levedy], Out of thyse world the gloriouse ferde Wyth greate melodye. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 114 Mars the planet bataillous Next to the sonne glorious. a 1396 Chaucer To Rosemounde 3 For as the crystal glorious ye shyne, And lyke ruby ben your chekes rounde. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. 366 Here gide was glorious and gay, of a gresse grene. 1509 Fisher Funeral Serm. C'tess Richmond Wks. (1876) 304 It [the body] shall ryse bryght and gloryous. 1535 Coverdale 2 Macc. viii. 35 He put of his glorious rayment, fled by see, and came alone to Antioche. 1596 Spenser F.Q. Ded. to Lady Carew, Those glorious ornaments of hevenly grace. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 89 The glorious Planet Sol. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 1 The Iris (as vibrissant and glorious as a Cat's eye) most admirable to behold. Ibid. 43 So clear and glorious a body as glass. 1665 R. Hooke Microgr. 169 The colours..must necessarily be very glorious, vivid and cleer, like those of Silk and Feathers. a 1687 Petty Pol. Arith. (1690) Pref., Notwithstanding all this..the Buildings of London grow great and glorious. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. v. §12 The glorious light of the gospel. 1792 Munchausen's Trav. xxiv. 108 The sun shone glorious on the water. 1803 Wordsw. Intim. Immort. ii, The sunshine is a glorious birth. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. ix. 62 All conspired to render the scene glorious. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xxvii. (1878) 470 The heavens were glorious with stars. |
5. a. Used vaguely as a rapturous expression of admiration or delight: Splendid, magnificent, intensely delightful. Now often with jocular hyperbole.
| 1623 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 216 As a good Chine of Bacon, makes glorious porrige. 1772 Nugent Grosley's Lond. I. 44 Which casual appearance [of the sun] procures the Londoners a few of what they call glorious days. 1816 ‘Quiz’ Grand Master vii. 24 They call a servant, and require, Immediately, a glorious fire. 1822 Scott Pirate II. i. 14 ‘You forget glorious John’, said Mordaunt. ‘Ay, glorious you may well call him’. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xli. (1856) 375 What a glorious feed for the scurvy-stricken ships. 1863 M. Howitt F. Bremer's Greece I. viii. 263 What glorious afternoons and evenings have I spent at Phalerus! 1875 W. S. Hayward Love agst. World 11 ‘What glorious fun’ said Florence. |
b. ironical phrase.
According to Gentl. Mag. (1830) Aug. 98/1, the phrase was first used at a dinner of the Judges and Counsel about 1756, when after the toast of ‘the glorious memory of King William’ had been drunk, a Mr. Wilbraham proposed ‘the glorious uncertainty of the law’, in sarcastic allusion to Ld. Chief Justice Mansfield's bold overruling of former decisions.
| 1759–93 Macklin Love à la mode ii. i. (1793) 27 The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science..and the glorious uncertainty of it is of mair use to the professors than the justice of it. 1803 Sheridan in Parl. Hist. (1820) XXXVI. 1204 The glorious uncertainty of the law, was a thing well known and complained of, by all ignorant people, but all learned gentlemen considered it as its greatest excellency. 1811 J. Adams Wks. (1854) IX. 630 When I applied the epithet ‘glorious’ to the uncertainty of politics, I meant it ironically, as we say the ‘glorious uncertainty of the law’. Mod. The glorious uncertainty of cricket. |
6. jocularly. Ecstatically happy from drink.
| 1790 Burns Tam o' Shanter 57 Kings may be blessed, but Tam was glorious, O'er a' the ills of life victorious. 1836 E. Howard R. Reefer lii, As fast as one man could be..flogged into sobriety, another would become glorious. 1861 Thackeray B. Lyndon xviii. (1869) 254, I was taken up ‘glorious’, as the phrase is, by my servants, and put to bed. |
7. Comb. (quasi-adv.), as glorious-doing, glorious-sounding, glorious-talking adjs.
| 1670 Brooks Wks. (1867) VI. 324 The most *glorious-doing Christian. |
| 1768 Boswell Corsica iii. (ed. 2) 214 Fame's *glorious-sounding trumpet breath. |
| 1662 Cokain Ovid iv. i. (1669) 78 My *glorious talking Captain, I shall not Be won with empty words. |
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Add: [3.] [a.] (d) the ‘Revolution’ of 1688 in England (see revolution n. 8 b).
| 1716 T. Bradbury Sermon preach'd November 5, 4 The first amazing Kindness that's inscribed upon the Fifth of November..is the Discovery of the Powder-Plot... But you know he hath put a new Song into our mouths, by making it again a time of Love: as it usher'd in the Glorious Revolution. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. II. xiv. 429 What has been emphatically denominated in the language of our public acts the Glorious Revolution. 1920 P. Guedalla Supers & Supermen 103 In the Great Rebellion the King left by the front door; in the Glorious Revolution he emerged from the tradesmen's entrance. 1986 Library Mar. 40 In Europe the peculiar constitutional arrangements deriving from the Glorious Revolution became a matter of intense interest to political philosophers. |