sulphureous, a.
(sʌlˈfjʊərɪəs)
Also 6 sulphureus, 8 sulfureous.
[f. L. sulphureus, f. sulphur: see sulphur n. and -eous. Cf. It., Sp., Pg. sulfureo.]
1. Of or pertaining to sulphur; full of, containing, or consisting of sulphur.
In the first two quots. the reference is to sulphur n. 2.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §354 There bee two Great Families of Things..Sulphureous and Mercuriall. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vi. xii. 335 So doth fire cleanse and purifie bodies, because it consumes the sulphureous parts, which before did make them foule. a 1691 Boyle Hist. Air (1692) 60 A very sulphureous Soil. 1731 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. i. 270 The Millypedes or Wood-lice have a sulphureous spirit in them w{supc}{suph} I have known do wonders on weak constitutions. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) I. viii. 36 Any sulphureous substance, mixed with iron, produces a very great heat by the admission of water. 1807 Byron Elegy on Newstead Abbey xv, War's dread machines..dart destruction in sulphureous showers. 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 217 Where the air is heated by smoke-flues or by fermenting stable dung, it may be charged with sulphureous or other noxious gases. 1875 E. White Life in Christ iv. xxiv. (1878) 386 The sulphureous rain [fire and brimstone] destroyed them all! |
b. Of sulphur springs or waters.
| 1608 Topsell Serpents 34 Those sulphureous Bathes which were neere vnto Cameriacum. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 4 Nov. 1644, Neere the towne is a sulphureous fountaine which continualy boils. 1792 A. Young Trav. France I. 25 The patients lie up to their chins in hot sulphureous water. 1797 Underwood Dis. Childhood I. 99 The Harrowgate, or any other sulphureous water will have a good effect. 1835 Cycl. Pract. Med. IV. 479/1 Sulphureous mineral waters have been so named from the sulphuretted hydrogen gas with which they are impregnated. 1911 Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 61/1 Natural sulphureous waters, especially hot springs, readily deposit sulphur. |
† c. Old Path. Consisting of ‘sulphur’ as one of the principles of matter; (of disease) arising from ‘sulphurous’ matter.
| 1625 Hart Anat. Ur. ii. x. 120 Such diseases as haue their originall from this Sulphureous and salt matter. Ibid., Some sulphureous, Mercuriall, or saltish and tartareous disease. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. xii. 439/2 Cholagoga, medicines that purge Sulphureous and Bilious humours. 1702 J. Purcell Cholick (1714) 141 The Curative Indications in this Cause are, to divide and break asunder the Sulphureous Filaments, and ill digested Particles of the Aliments. |
2. Derived or emanating from sulphur; hence, having the qualities associated with (burning) sulphur; applied chiefly to cloud, smoke, odour.
| a 1552 Leland Itin. (1907) ii. 142 The water of the baynes..having sumwhat a sulphureus and sumwhat onpleasant savor. 1594 Nashe Terrors Night Wks. 1904 I. 360 A sulphureous stinking smoak. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 7 Feb. 1645, Gaping..chasms, out of which issued such sulphureous blasts and smoke [etc.]. 1700 Dryden Ovid's Met. xv. 509 ætna vomiting sulphureous Fire. 1725 Pope Odyss. xii. 492 Sulphureous odours rose, and smould'ring smoke. a 1774 Goldsm. Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776) I. 56 The flash is sudden, the noise is loud, a sulphureous smell ensues. 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. 201 No sulphureous or other disagreeable effluvium is ever given out by hot-water pipes when they become leaky, as is the case with flues when they are not air-tight. 1866 Herschel Fam. Lect. Sci. 22 The dense sulphureous vapour that swept down from the mountain. |
b. Thundery. rare. (Cf. sulphurous 2 b.)
| 1751 Earl of Orrery Rem. Swift (1752) 58 King William in hopes to dispel this sulphureous body of clouds [etc.]. |
3. allusively and fig. † a. Hellish, satanic. Obs.
| [1624 T. Taylor 2 Serm. ii. 24 We..remember not that they digged a sulphureous pit in 1605, wide enough to swallow three whole kingdomes.] 1644 Vicars God in Mount 202 The sulphureous and sanguineous or bloody order and fraternity of Romish Jesuites. |
b. Full of the ‘sulphur’ of hell.
| 1791 Hampson Mem. J. Wesley II. 69 Hell and damnation has been denounced..in a stile so horribly sulphureous, that [etc.]. 1865 Pall Mall Gaz. 22 Apr. 1 They would be under the absolute sway of the most sulphureous preacher of the neighbourhood. |
4. Sulphur-coloured; sulphur-yellow. Also, of the bluish colour of the flame with which sulphur burns.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Sulphureous,..of the colour of Sulphur or Brimston. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxix, The accumulating clouds..assumed a red sulphureous tinge that foretold a violent storm. 1796 Southey Donica xxvi, The hallow'd tapers dimly stream'd A pale sulphureous light. 1821 J. Baillie Metr. Leg., Ghost of Fadon xxix, Till the flame..burn'd Of clear sulphureous blue. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. xlvi. 279 Sulphureous (Sulphureus). Yellow with a tint of green. 1865 Livingstone Zambesi xii. 258 The evening sun imparts a sulphureous hue. |
† 5. Chem. sulphureous acid (gas): sulphurous acid (gas). sulphureous hydrogen: sulphuretted hydrogen. sulphureous salt (see quot. 1790). sulphureous spirit: ? sulphur dioxide. Obs.
| 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. s.v., After the Spirit and Oil of Vitriol are in distillation of that Mineral, driven out by a most Violent Fire..into the Receiver. They commonly Rectifie the Matter in a Glass Body; and the first Spirit that rises then with a very gentle degree of Fire, is called the Sulphureous Spirit of Vitriol. 1789 J. K[eir] 1st Pt. Dict. Chem. 6/2 The sulphureous acid, and the marine dephlogisticated acid destroy vegetable colours, and change them to white. 1790 Kerr tr. Lavoisier's Elem. Chem. 222 note, The only one of these salts known to the old chemists was the sulphite of potash, under the name of Stahl's sulphureous salt. 1794 Pearson tr. Morveau's Chem. Nomencl. 4 The word Sulfite denotes compounds consisting of the Sulphureous Acid and each of the above twenty-six different kinds of substances. Ibid. 30 Sulphur, which by combining with Oxygen and Caloric produces sulphureous Acid Gaz. 1806 Gazetteer Scot. (ed. 2) 297/2 Springs, one of which is impregnated with sulphureous hydrogen gas. 1812 Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. Wks. 1840 IV. 23 He [sc. Stahl] discovered..the nature of sulphureous acid. |
Hence sulˈphureously adv., sulˈphureousness.
| 1677 [see sulphuriously adv. quot. 1638]. 1690 T. Burnet Th. Earth iii. x. II. 83 Sulphureousness of the Soil. a 1701 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1721) 84 The Sulphureousness of its Smell and Taste. 1727 S. Hales Statical Ess. (1731) I. 311 In proportion to the sulphureousness and thickness of those fumes. 1906 Westm. Gaz. 7 Sept. 2/1 The air still smelt sulphureously. |