| 释义 |
Herculean, a.|həˈkjuːlɪən|
[f. L. Hercule-us, f. Herculēs (see below) + -an. Cf. F. Herculéen.]
1. Of or pertaining to Hercules.
Herculean pillars, Herculean straits: see Hercules 1 c.
1610Chester's Tri. (Chetham Soc.) Particulars 2 Bearing Herculian Clubbes in their hands. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 233 The Arabike tongue..It is now the most universall in the world..from the Herculean Pillars to the Molluccas. c1645Howell Lett. xlviii. (1754) 354 You have knocked him down with a kind of Herculean Club. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iii. §33. 141 That the Mediterranean Sea forced open that passage of the Herculean Straits. 1803Beddoes Hygëia ix. 17 It [epilepsy] was like⁓wise called the Herculean complaint, an appellation which medical etymologists are puzzled to explain.
2. Like Hercules, esp. in strength, courage, or labours; prodigiously powerful or vigorous; gigantic.
1596Nashe Saffron Walden 116 The more than Herculean fury he was in. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 1060 The Danite strong, Herculean Samson. 1791Boswell Johnson an. 1750 (1831) I. 201 Addison's style..though comparatively weak, when opposed to Johnson's Herculean vigour. 1814Byron Corsair i. ix, Robust but not Herculean—to the sight No giant frame sets forth his common height. 1891Spectator 18 Sept., His labours in the cause of science were herculean.
b. transf. Of things: Strong, powerful, violent.
1602Marston Antonio's Rev. ii. iii. Wks. 1856 I. 100 Let mine out-woe me: mine's Hurculean woe. 1664Power Exp. Philos. 135 The first (which is the main and Herculean-Argument). 1747Wesley Prim. Physic (1762) p. xxv, The four Herculean Medicines, Opium, The Bark, Steel, and most of the Preparations of Quicksilver. Herculean indeed! Far too strong for common Men to grapple with.
3. Of a labour or task: Difficult or hard to accomplish as Hercules' labours were; requiring the strength of a Hercules; excessive, immense.
1617Moryson Itin. To Rdr. ⁋v, The adding of these severall values in each daies journy, had been an Herculean labour. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. i. §1 Acquiring true knowledge, that Herculean labour. 1875Scrivener Lect. Text N. Test. 13 An herculean task, to which not one life but many must needs be devoted. |