| 释义 |
spiritual, a. and n.|ˈspɪrɪtjuːəl|
Forms: 4–5 spirituel(l, 4–6 -elle, 4 spyrytuele, 5 spyryt-, spyrit-, spirytuel(l; 4– spiritual, 4–5 -ale, 6–7 -all, 5 spirytuall, spyrytual(e, 5–6 -all, sperituall (5 -ale), 6 spyritualle.
[a. OF. spirituel (12th c., = It. spirituale, Sp. and Pg. espiritual), or ad. L. spīrituāl-is, f. spīritus spirit n. Cf. espiritual, spritual, and spirital.]
A. adj.
I.
1. a. Of or pertaining to, affecting or concerning, the spirit or higher moral qualities, esp. as regarded in a religious aspect. (Freq. in express or implied distinction to bodily, corporal, or temporal.)
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xiv. 284 So pouerte propreliche, penaunce, and ioye, Is to þe body pure spiritual helthe. c1400Anturs of Arth. xx, Of thies sperituale thynges spyre me na mare. c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 97 Spiritual gladnesse most for to habounde, This day mynistred til oure refeccioune. 1474Caxton Chesse (1883) 42 For they doo spirytuell and also corporall werkis. 1529More Dyaloge i. Wks. 157/1 It then bycame to be the spirituall busynesse and occupacion of man. 1563Foxe A. & M. 1111 In the sacrament..there is not the very substaunce..but a spirituall partaking of the bodye and blood of Christ. 1592in J. Morris Troubles Cath. Foref. (1877) 38 A man..much given to meditation, and receiving thereby many spiritual consolations. 1630B. Jonson New Inn iii. ii, Love is a spiritual coupling of two souls. 1663Bp. Patrick Parab. Pilgr. xxvii, Since they are most proper to Beginners, and..those who enter upon the Spiritual Race. 1753Challoner Cath. Chr. Instr. 20 The spiritual Kindred which is contracted between the Gossips and the Child. 1784P. Wright New Bk. Martyrs 798/1 To administer those spiritual helps that were suitable to men in their circumstances. 1835I. Taylor Spirit Despot. vii. 289 The spiritual essence of popery has outlived the over⁓throw of the papal domination. 1883J. Parker Apost. Life II. 327 The thing I aim at is spiritual restoration, spiritual completeness, spiritual immortality.
Comb.1872Howells Wedding Journ. (1892) 269 A spiritual-worldliness which was the clarified likeness of this-worldliness. 1916Joyce Portrait of Artist (1969) v. 252 Turned off that valve at once and opened the spiritual-heroic refrigerating apparatus, invented and patented in all countries by Dante Alighieri. 1929D. H. Lawrence Paintings of D. H. Lawrence A4v This no doubt is all in the course of the growth of the ‘spiritual-mental’ consciousness.
b. Applied to material things, substances, etc., in a figurative or symbolical sense.
1387–8T. Usk Test. Love iii. ix. (Skeat) I. 98 How was it, that sightful manna in deserte to children of Israel was spirituel mete? 1550Coverdale (title), A Spyrytuall and most Precyouse Pearle teaching all men to love and imbrace the Crosse. 1576G. Tyrrell in J. Morris Troubles Cath. Foref. Ser. ii. (1875) 30 Abundance of spiritual riches far passingly supplieth the lack of the other [i.e. corporal]. 1611Bible Transl. Pref. ⁋1 The Spirituall and sincere milke of the word. 1667Milton P.L. xii. 491 His Spirit..shall write To guide them in all truth, and also arme With spiritual Armour. a1729J. Rogers Nineteen Serm. vi. (1735) 117 All eat of the same spiritual Bread, and drank of the same spiritual Cup. 1820Southey Wesley II. 331 With regard to the bodily effects that ensued, whenever the spiritual influenza began. 1871Morley Carlyle in Crit. Misc. Ser. i. (1878) 173 A cloud of sedulous ephemera still suck a little spiritual moisture. 1889Stevenson Edinburgh 168 Every kind of spiritual disinfectant.
c. Of songs, etc.: Devotional, sacred; spec. in sense 5 of the n.
1382Wyclif Eph. v. 19 Spekinge to ȝou silf in psalmes, and ymnes, and spiritual songis. 1567Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 1 Singing of the Psalmes, and spiritual sangis. 1611Bible Eph. v. 19; Colos. iii. 16. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 364 Dancings in stately rooms, or gardens, with spirituall songs, rather a sort of adoration than a dance. 1905[see gospel song s.v. gospel n. 9]. 1964Amer. Folk Music Occasional i. 15 Q. What kind of music did you like best at this time, spiritual music or blues or what? R. I always liked the spiritual music the best.
†d. Of transcendent beauty or charm. Obs.—1
1480Caxton Myrr. ii. iv. 69 Ther ben yet plente of other places so delectable, so swete, and so spyrytuel that yf a man were therin, he shold saye, that it were a very paradys.
e. spiritual home (with no religious connotation), a place or milieu, other than one's home, which seems especially congenial or in harmony with one's nature, or to which one feels a sense of belonging or indebtedness.
1932Week-End Rev. 7 May 586/1 If they write about it at all they make it clear that Europe is their spiritual home. 1941A. Christie Evil under Sun iii. 52 A man like you would be at Deauville or Le Touquet... That's your—what's the phrase?—spiritual home. 1962Wodehouse Service with Smile xi. 164 He disliked Lord Ickenham, considering him a potty sort of feller whose spiritual home was a padded cell in some not too choosy lunatic asylum. 1967[see paper n. 8 b]. 1977[see Rastafarian a. and n.].
2. a. Of, belonging or relating to, concerned with, sacred or ecclesiastical things or matters, as distinguished from secular affairs; pertaining to the church or the clergy; ecclesiastical.
1338R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 283 He sent to þe kyng tuo bisshops of renoun, & schewed þat spiritualle þing þorgh pouert ȝede alle doun. c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 305 Þei meyntenen þis cursed þefte boþe bi seculer power and spiritual swerd. a1440Found. St. Bartholomew's (E.E.T.S.) 5 Thou shalte founde a Chirche... This spirituall howse, almyghty God shalle ynhabite and halowe yt. 1467in Eng. Gilds (1870) 390 In eny cymitory or londe spirituelle. 1500–20Dunbar Poems lxxi. 25 Couatyce ringis into the spirituall state, Ȝarnand banifice the quhilk ar now vacand. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. V, 37 We have in our spirituall conuocacion graunted to your highnes..a some of money. 1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 249 If any Clerke gave to a layman..any spirituall goodes he should stand excommunicate. 1654Whitlock Zootomia 362 The Scabberd of Power (if not of Justice,) seemeth to have Locks on them, that only the spirituall Keyes can open. a1700Evelyn Diary 26 Apr. 1689, The penalty is to be the losse of their dignitie and spiritual preferment. 1727De Foe Eng. Tradesm. v. (1841) I. 33 The duties of life, which are either spiritual or secular. 1844Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) I. ii. 78 The prelate watched over the spiritual interests. 1863Mrs. Oliphant Salem Chapel i. 6 The young man knew very little of the community which he had assumed the spiritual charge of.
†b. Of law: Canon, canonical. Obs.
1474Caxton Chesse iii. iii. (1883) 95 As well in the spirituell lawe as in the temporall. 1642tr. Perkins Prof. Bk. i. §49. 22 If a bastard eigne (who is mulier in the spiritual law,) continueth possession in lands [etc.].
†c. Of a day: Devoted to or set apart for special religious or sacred observances; holy. Obs.
1490Caxton Rule St. Benet 134 The souereyn may breke his mele for a stranger, wythout it be a spirituell fastynge daye. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 1 b, Whiche..in maner declareth the hole mater of these vij spirituall dayes.
d. spiritual court, a court having jurisdiction in matters of religion or ecclesiastical affairs.
1498–9Plumpton Corr. (Camden) 133 A spoliacion in the spirituall court. 1538Starkey England 139 In theyr spiritual courtys, they haue no punnyschement..conuenyent to such fautys. 1681H. Nevile Plato Rediv. 131 Neither the Chancery,..nor the Spiritual Courts, nor the Cheats in trade. 1758in Blackstone Comm. (1765) I. 20 This appears in a particular manner from the spiritual courts of all denominations. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 55 A..period during which the powers and the aims of law were usurped..by the clergy and the courts spiritual. 1845S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. I. 111 The confusion arising from the jurisdiction of the spiritual and temporal courts.
3. Of persons:
a. Standing to another, or to others, in a spiritual relationship.
c1386Chaucer Pars. T. ⁋516 Alle we haue o fader flesshly & o moder, that is to seyn Adam and Eue & eek o fader spirituel, that is god of heuene. c1440Alph. Tales 189, I had iij spirituall maisters, and þe furste was drede, & the secunde was shame, and þe iij was luff. 1483Caxton Cato A vij, For herto ben bounden of ryght not onely the carnal faders but also the spyrituel. 1555Eden Decades To Rdr. (Arb.) 51 Thincrease of this spirituall Israell vnto whome..he was the father of fayth. 1562Winȝet Wks. (S.T.S.) II. 23 Be thame he wald..quikin his spiritual peple afoir slane. 1567Allen Def. Priesthood 226 We call them Confessours, & of olde in Grece, they were named Spirituall maisters or Fathers. 1697G. Burghope Disc. Relig. Assemb. 122 He preferrs his own parish priest..as being his spiritual father. 1769H. Venn in Life (1835) 152 A lady said to me, ‘You, sir, are my spiritual father’. 1820Milner Suppl. Mem. Eng. Cath. 66 note, The distinguished Professor of Divinity and Spiritual Director of the Pontifical Seminary of Douay. 1843Quincy (Illinois) Herald 15 Dec. 3/1 Hyram Smith has had a revelation confirming the spiritual wife system. 1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 434 Spiritual wife,..a Mormon extra wife or concubine. 1901Kipling Kim v. 111 The comfort..of being properly..respected as her spiritual adviser by a well-born woman. 1925Ladies' Home Jrnl. Apr. 38/1 It is considered by the elderly women of Utah a great and sacred privilege to be the spiritual wife of Brigham Young or the Prophet Joseph Smith in the world to come. 1951J. T. McNeill History of Cure of Souls iii. 42 Among ancient civilizations, that of India seems to have given the greatest prominence to the spiritual director. 1980Tablet 26 Jan. 8/2 He..cited..divorced Catholics in second marriages who, after prayer and consultation with a spiritual director, have returned to the sacraments. Ibid. 95/3 A letter I wrote in reply to my spiritual children was produced.
b. Ecclesiastical, religious. Freq. in spiritual lords and spiritual man (or spiritual person).
(a)1399Rolls of Parlt. III. 451 The Kyng comond with his Spirituel Lordes. c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. xv. (1885) 145 The gretteste lordes off þe lande, both spirituelles and temporellis. 1516Sc. Acts, Jas. V (1875) XII. 36/1 We prelatis spirituall, Barouns Temporall, and Commouns of..Scottlaund. 1625in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 203 When he had consulted with the Lords spirituall and Temporall. 1661Reflex. upon the Oaths Suprem. & Alleg. 50 Ecclesiastical Courts, which we call the Spiritual Courts, and Spiritual Judges, and Spiritual Authority. 1727Swift Poison. E. Curll Wks. 1755 III. i. 150 I do also heartily beg pardon of all persons of honour, lords spiritual and temporal, gentry, burgesses, and commonalty. 1824in Nairne Peerage Evid. (1874) 73 With the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal and commons in this present Parliament assembled. 1863H. Cox Instit. i. vii. 62 The Lords Spiritual and Temporal form one legislative assembly.
(b)c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. xv. (1885) 146 Ther were chosen xij spirituell men, and xij temporell men. 1480in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. V. 316 What ever condicion or degree he be of, spirituell or temporell. 1530Act 22 Hen. VIII, c. 15, Spyrituall persones of the prouynce of the archebyshopryche of Canturburye. 1582in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. V. 32 Being examined whether he be a spirituall or a temporall man, answereth that he is a Spirituall man and a Priest. 1642Bird Mag. Honour 146 The brethren and sonnes..of every Knight, being spirituall men, may..purchase lycense and dispensation. 1726Ayliffe Parergon 129 All Bishops and Abbots sat in State-Councils by Reason of their Office, as they were spiritual Persons. 1848Stephen Laws Eng. (ed. 2) II. 39 note, Any sale or assignment by any spiritual person of any patronage belonging to him in virtue of his office.
c. Devout, holy, pious; morally good; having spiritual tendencies or instincts.
1382Wyclif Gal. vi. 1 Ȝe that ben spiritual, teche siche a maner man in spirit of softenesse. c1400St. Alexius (Laud MS. 622) 842 Þere is a Man of dedes gode, Spirituel, & mylde of mode. c1450Holland Howlat 166 Thir ar fowlis of effect,..Spirituale in all thing, Leile in thar leving. 1674Marvell Corr. Wks. (Grosart) II. 423 The good acquaintance you have among those spirituall people. c1791Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) VII. 447/1 These milder alterations were zealously opposed by a branch of the Franciscans called the spiritual. 1836Going to Service xii. 140, I have a spiritual lady to serve. 1883[see spirituality 3].
4. a. Of or pertaining to, consisting of, spirit, regarded in either a religious or intellectual aspect; of the nature of a spirit or incorporeal supernatural essence; immaterial.
In early use not always distinct from sense 1.
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 12170 He myȝt se weyl Þyng þat was spyrytuele. 1382Wyclif 1 Cor. xv. 44 It is sowun a beestly body, it schal ryse a spiritual body. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xvi. 74, I am noȝt erthely, bot spirituall. c1475Partenay 5291 When to ende nyhed he, That the soule moste yelde being spirituall. 1557N.T. (Genev.) Eph. vi. 12 For we wrestle not against fleshe and bloud: but..against spiritual wickednesses. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ iii. i. §17 If there be then such things in the World which matter and motion cannot be the causes of then there are certainly spiritual and immaterial Beings. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 677 Millions of spiritual Creatures walk the Earth Unseen. 1696Phillips (ed. 5), Spiritual, said of a Being that has no Body, that falls not under the Senses. 1825Coleridge Aids Refl. 67 The Will is pre-eminently the spiritual Constituent of our Being. 1846Ruskin Mod. Paint. II. iii. ii. §17 It is degrading to the spiritual creature to suppose it operative through impulse of bone and sinew. 1875J. P. Hopps Princ. Relig. ii. 9 The real man is the spiritual being who controls and uses all the faculties and organs of the body.
b. Appropriate or natural to a spirit.
1667Milton P.L. viii. 110 His Omnipotence, That to corporeal substances could adde Speed almost Spiritual.
c. spiritual healing, cure or healing attributed to the agency of (a) spirit; faith-healing.
1899H. W. Dresser Spiritual Healing vi. 54 How can I live according to the principles of spiritual healing among people who have no sympathy with the new principles. 1926W. T. Walsh Sci. Spiritual Healing iii. 30, I announced a service of spiritual healing to be held in the church every Thursday morning after the celebration of the Holy Communion. 1980Spiritual Healer XXVIII. 131 We have known many instances of migraine..being overcome through spiritual healing.
5. Consisting of pure essence or spirit; volatile; spirituous, alcoholic. Now rare or Obs.
1477Norton Ord. Alch. vi. in Ashm. (1652) 95 All other Vessells be made of Glasse, That spirituall matters should not out-passe. 1626Bacon Sylva §387 All Sweet Smells have joyned with them, some Earthy or crude Odours; And at some distance the Sweet, which is the more Spiritual, is perceived. a1648Digby Closet Opened (1677) 125 Thus you have only the spiritual parts of the Tea. 1826Art of Brewing (ed. 2) 69 Stout ales..labour under one material want—that of spiritual vigour.
6. Of or pertaining to, emanating from, the intellect or higher faculties of the mind; intellectual.
1725Watts Logic i. iii. §1 Spiritual or intellectual Ideas are those which we gain by reflecting on the Nature and Actions of our own Souls. 1749Fielding Tom Jones xvi. v, That refined degree of Platonic affection which is..entirely and purely spiritual. 1813Shelley Q. Mab v. 162 Blunting the keenness of his spiritual sense With narrow schemings and unworthy cares. 1853Lytton My Novel viii. xi, Whatever she gained in the graver kinds of information, became transmuted, through her heart and her fancy, into spiritual golden stores. 1873Hamerton Intell. Life xi. iv. 417 The great spiritual function of the intellectual class.
7. Characterized by or exhibiting a high degree of refinement of thought or feeling. (Cf. spirituel a.)
1784J. Barry Lect. Paint. vi. (1848) 227 The harmony resulting from all those variegating masses of colour, together with the light, easy, graceful, spiritual manner in which the whole [picture] is conducted. 1820Keats St. Agnes xxxv, Those sad eyes were spiritual and clear. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xliii, The delicate face,..the too bright eye, the spiritual head,..told their silent tale.
8. Clever, smart, witty. (Cf. spirituel a.)
1791–1823D'Israeli Cur. Lit. (1834) I. 228 It may not here be improper to take notice of a wise and spiritual saying of this young prince. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. ii. i. x, Of all this the spiritual biographies of that period say nothing. 1872Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. July 493/1 We French are extremely spiritual, and..are never at a loss for an answer.
9. a. Concerned with spirits or supernatural beings.
1841Lane Arab. Nts. I. 69 Who acquired a very great and extensive celebrity for his attainments in spiritual and natural magic. 1855–7(title), Yorkshire Spiritual Telegraph, containing a number of extraordinary communications from the Spiritual World. 1860–1877(title), The Spiritual Magazine.
b. = spiritualistic a. 2.
spiritual funeral, one conducted after the fashion of the believers in Spiritualism (Bartlett).
1858in Bartlett Dict. Amer. (1859) 434 A spiritual funeral was held at Lowell lately.
II.
†10. Of or pertaining to breathing; respiratory. Obs.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxvi. (Bodl. MS.), Þe schuldres ben nedeful to defende þe spiritualle membres. c1460J. Metham Wks. (E.E.T.S.) 89 It signifieth good dysposicion of the hert and of the spirituall membris in a man. 1576G. Baker tr. Gesner's Jewell of Health 169 Briefly, all matters found in the Lungs, and spirituall members, this singularly purgeth.
B. n.
I.
†1.
a. collect. The spirituality; the clergy. Obs.
a1400Morte Arth. 2414 It es a foly to offende oure fadyr vndire Gode... Ȝif we spare the spirituelle, we spede bot the bettire.
†b. An ecclesiastic or cleric. Obs.—1
c1450Holland Howlat 733 Haile speciose, most specifyit with the spiritualis! 1682Wheler Journ. Greece v. 356 There are but few among them [Greeks], who have where⁓withal to live, but will learn, while they are young, to write and read, whether Spirituals, or Seculars.
2. a. A spiritual or spiritually-minded person.
1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 365/2 He sayth himselfe that y⊇ spirituals do searche the bottome of gods commaundementes and fulfyll them gladly. Ibid. 715/1 The very Isaackes, the very Iacobs, and the very spiritualles, & the verye apostles.
b. Eccl. Hist. (With initial capital.) A member of the Congregation of Narbonne, a branch of Franciscans which advocated a stricter observance of the rule of poverty and simplicity of dress.
The branch was pronounced schismatic by Pope John XXII in 1318.
c1791Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) VII. 447/2 The one [party], embracing the severe discipline and absolute poverty of St. Francis, were called spirituals. 1855Milman Lat. Chr. xii. vi. V. 419 The Spirituals, the Fraticelli,..openly avowed their belief. Ibid. 420 The sudden election to the Popedom of Cœlestine V,..a new St. Francis, to the Spiritualists a true Spiritual. 1862G. H. Townsend Man. Dates, Spiritualists, called also the Zealous, or the Spirituals.
c. An inhabitant of the ‘spiritual kindgom’.
1807Southey Lett. fr. Eng. (1814) III. 158 The celestials chiefly using the vowels U and O, the spirituals preferring E and I.
d. U.S. A spiritual wife (see prec. 3 a).
1855Putnam's Monthly Mag. VI. 147/1 These extra wives [of the Mormons] are known by sundry designations—some call them ‘spirituals’, others, ‘sealed ones’.
3. a. pl. Spiritual matters, affairs, or ideas.
1582N.T. (Rhem.) Eph. vi. 12 Our wrestling is not against flesh and bloud: but..against the spirituals of wickednes in the celestials. 1607[see carnal a. 4 b]. 1625Burges Tithes 14 Why he should pay so much of his Carnals for Spirituals. 1649F. Roberts Clavis Bibl. Introd. ii. 32 He condemns the contrary unskilfulnesse in the Scriptures, as the..root of all errour in spirituals. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. i. v. (1848) 86 Translate now (O my Soul) all this unto Spirituals. 1716M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. 170 Twas no great piece of News to hear of Laymen's ministring in Spirituals to Church-People. 1774F. Burney Early Diary (1889) I. 303 I have found much pleasure in Madame de Maintenon's Letters (except in Theologicals and Spirituals). 1840Mill Diss. & Disc. (1875) I. 433 Such was the prevailing tone of English belief in temporals; what was it in spirituals? 1893Pall Mall G. 9 Jan. 3/2 Spirits and spirituals taken in excess..work the same effect with weak and over-excited brains.
b. Matters which specially or primarily concern the church or religion.
1647N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. vii. 25 There was but one Metropolitan.., so as his power was in spirituals over many Kingdoms. 1689Popple tr. Locke's 1st Let. Toleration L.'s Wks. 1727 II. 246 If..such a Power be granted unto the Civil Magistrate in Spirituals. 1794tr. Barruel's Clergy during Fr. Rev. 98 That it did not belong to the secular power to meddle in spirituals. 1853M. Kelly tr. Gosselin's Power Pope Mid. Ages II. 360 That the Church and the pope have received..full power to govern the world, both in spirituals and temporals. 1873Morley Rousseau xii. II. 178 The civil power does best absolutely and unreservedly to ignore spirituals.
c. Spiritual or ecclesiastical goods or possessions; spiritualities.
1827Gentl. Mag. XCVII. ii. 536 Forming part of their spirituals (because such their spirituals always include an absolute right over other people's temporals). 1863Blyth Hist. Notices & Rec. Fincham 39 The spirituals were such revenue as was connected with spiritual duties and the cure of souls, and consisted almost entirely of tithes, glebe lands, and house.
4. a. A spiritual counterpart or analogue.
1650T. Vaughan Anima Magica 52 Learn to refer all Naturals to their Spirituals, per viam Secretioris Analogiæ.
b. A spiritual (as opposed to a material) thing.
1661Glanvill Van. Dogm. 97 In our notion of spirituals, we, as much as we can, denudate them of all material Phantasmes. 1708H. Dodwell Nat. Mort. Hum. Souls 127 It does now affect us to think of Spirituals, whilst we have no sensible Impression made upon us by Things purely Spiritual, but by those only which are only Corporeal.
c. Spiritual quality or power; pl. spiritual faculties.
1649F. Roberts Clavis Bibl. 239 The Succession of Elisha as Prophet in stead of Elijah; a double portion of his spirituall resting upon him. 1652Benlowes Theoph. iv. xix, Spiritual light spirituals clears.
5. = Negro spiritual s.v. Negro 7.
1866Harper's Mag. May 775/1 Maum Rina flavored all her dishes with these ‘spirituals’, as they are called among the negroes. 1870T. W. Higginson Army Life 197, I had for many years heard of this class of songs under the name of ‘Negro Spirituals’. Ibid. 199 This seemed the simplest primitive type of ‘spiritual’. 1926A. Niles in W. C. Handy Blues 9 These songs [sc. the blues] were woven of the same stuff as the other overlapping items in the long list,—the work-songs, love-songs..; yes, and decidedly the spirituals. 1947S. Bellow Victim iv. 39 Harkavy and a girl he had brought to the party were singing spirituals and old ballads. 1981M. Doody in Martin & Mullen No Alternative iv. 53 ‘Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble’ as the spiritual goes.
II.
†6. pl. The respiratory organs. Obs.
c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 161 Þis diafragma departiþ þe spirituals from þe guttis, & in þe holownes þat is aboue liggiþ þe herte & þe lungis. 1610Healey St. Aug. Citie of God xxii. xxiv. (1620) 848 The courses of the veines, sinewes and arteries, and the secrets of the spirituals. |