heroicaladj.

?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1871) III. 281 (MED) Socrates ȝafe grete resplendence in vertues heroicalle [a1387 J. Trevisa tr. vertues þat makeþ men i-liche to God; L. uirtutibus heroicis].

1555 R. Eden in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde Pref. sig. aij The heroical factes of the Spaniardes of these days, deserue so greate prayse.

1586 A. Day Eng. Secretorie i. sig. B7 The heroicall and mighty actions of Kings.

1620 Bp. J. Hall Honor Married Clergie i. viii. 42 The heroicall spirit of Luther..chose rather..to be an honest Husband, than a fornicating Frier.

1643 W. Prynne Soveraigne Power Parl. Ded. sig. A2^v One person of the exquisitest judgement, Heroicallest Spirit.

1700 J. Dryden Fables Ded. sig. Bij Though you have Courage in a heroical Degree.

1749 D. Hartley Observ. Man ii. iii. 319 The Bulk of Mankind are at a Loss to believe the Possibility of very heroical, generous, pious Actions.

1803 E. Hay Hist. Insurrection Wexford Introd. 19 He manifested a most heroical disposition at the battles of Ross and Fooks's Mill.

1814 J. West Alicia de Lacy I. 83 She would imitate such heroical subjection of personal desires.

1920 Manch. Guardian 25 May 5/2 The story of a Moorish raid, of abduction and heroical rescue.

1988 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 2 July i. 7/1 Heroical deeds..accomplished by our people.

2003 World Lit. Today 77 137/3 The heroical fight of the Danish resistance to the German occupation during World War II.

1535 W. Marshall tr. Marsilius of Padua Def. of Peace xi. f. 26^v A prynce or gouernoure so heroycall [L. heroicum] and passynge vertuous, that there coulde be neyther passyon, neyther ignoraunce in hym.

1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iv. i. 63 Haue comiseration on thy heroicall Vassall. View more context for this quotation

1617 F. Moryson Itinerary iii. 16 That Heroicall Woman, Elizabeth late Queene of England.

1654 J. Trapp Comm. Psalms ii. 4 Luther, that Heroical Reformer, was Excommunicated by the Pope.

1743 Epitaph in J. Entick New Hist. London (1766) 418 To the memory of this most heroical person.

1764 S. Foote Lyar i. 14 I have got here a most heroical lover.

1824 W. S. Landor Imaginary Conversat. I. xv. 390 Mezentius, the most heroical of all the characters in that poem.

1912 A. T. S. Goodrick tr. H. J. C. von Grimmelshausen Adventurous Simplicissimus i. xxiii. 74 A brave and heroical soldier.

1995 Observer (Nexis) 16 July 15 He casts serious doubts on the picture of the heroical outsider.

1577 W. Harrison Hist. Descr. Islande Brit. iii. iv. f. 103*/1, in R. Holinshed Chron. I Magnificent apparell both of stuffe and fashion exquisite and heroicall.

1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alphabet. Heroicall, beseeming a noble man, or magnificent.

a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1683 (1955) IV. 317 Virio the Painters Invention is..admirable, his Ord'nance full, & flowing, antique & heroical.

1718 M. Shelton Hist. & Crit. Ess. True Rise Nobility vii. 135 Stately and magnificent Apparel, exquisite and heroical, to wear at high Feasts.

?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1874) V. 377 (MED) Formatus the poete..drawede the gestes of Seynte Martyne in iiij bookes, in metre heroicalle [a1387 J. Trevisa tr. vers of sixe feet; L. heroico..metro].

1546 T. Langley tr. P. Vergil Abridgem. Notable Worke i. viii. f. xvii Heroical meter is so called of the valiaunt dedes of armes of noble men that be contained in it.

1576 A. Fleming tr. G. Macropedius in Panoplie Epist. 377 To write in heroicall Verses.

1589 R. Hakluyt tr. J. Bale in Princ. Navigations i. 15 He..handled the same Argument in Heroical verse.

1617 B. Rich Irish Hubbub 3 [Stanyhurst] tooke vpon him to translate Virgill, and stript him..out of a Latin Heroicall verse, into an English riffe raffe.

1693 W. Wotton tr. L. E. Du Pin New Hist. Eccl. Writers V. iv. 26 It is not written in Heroical Verse, as Sigibert observ'd, but in Elegiac Verse.

1817 Crit. Rev . Feb. 194 There can be nothing more wearisome than the heroical measure as employed and constructed by Mr. Hoole and those whom he has imitated.

1839 Monthly Chron. 4 259 We do not anticipate that an English audience, like a German one, would endure to listen to a rhymed lyrical play any more than they would to rhymed heroical verses.

1985 Victorian Poetry 23 236 He had..chosen to render the epyllion into fourteener couplets rather than into some more conventional form of English heroical verse.

?1521 A. Barclay Bk. Codrus & Mynalcas sig. Ciij They count them poetes, hye and heroycall.

a1586 Sir P. Sidney Apol. Poetrie (1595) sig. C4 Xenophon..made therein [i.e. in Cyropædia] an absolute heroicall Poem.

1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy iii. ii. iii. i. 597 All these passions are well described by that Heroicall Poet.

1684 T. Creech tr. Theocritus Idylliums i. 9 Then Epick Poetry which is lofty and Heroical arrose.

1707 J. Dunton Athenian Sport lxx. 324/1 The Learned Pindar was no less a Lover of Wine than Cowley. 'Twas this made him a peerless Heroical Poet.

1800 Monthly Mag. June 431/1 The great heroical piece, Johanna of Montfaucon.

1843 U.S. Democratic Rev. Dec. 600/1 The very antipode of that heroical poetry he so much affected.

1901 19th Cent. & After Feb. 294 The peasant of to-day is acquainted with the heroical tales of the Fenian cycle, and to him Dairmuid and Usheen and Caoelte are a part of his inheritance.

1911 Encycl. Brit. XXVIII. 327/1 It is difficult to understand how Francis Meres came to rank him with Spenser as the chief heroical poets of the day.

2010 States News Service (Nexis) 31 Mar. Mamayi is a master artist for the heroical epic Manass.

1581 W. Allen Apol. Two Eng. Colleges vi. f. 80 They haue (our Lord Iesus giuing grace..to their godly and heroical endeuours)..entered into the extreme parts of the world, almost through al the East Indes, and most barbarous Countries, and haue conuerted diuers mightie Princes.

a1628 F. Greville Life of Sidney (1652) vii. 90 That Heroicall design of invading, and possessing America, how exactly soever projected, and digested in every minute.

1671 H. Hallywell Disc. Excellency Christianity iii. 46 These and such like Heroical Exertions of our Minds bring..a present Delight and Gratefulness with them.

1732 G. Berkeley Alciphron I. iv. i. 207 It is..in Philosophy an heroical Atchievement to dispossess this imaginary Monarch [sc. God] of his Government.

1839 Edinb. Rev. Jan. 405 He..at last, after ten years of assiduous labour, saw his heroical task crowned with success.

1891 R. Allan Border Lays ii. 95 ‘I'll venture to go to the preachings.’ A heroical project most surely.

1907 Encycl. Americana XVI. at Balzac It [sc. Balzac's Comédie Humaine] is an imaginative reconstruction of French society in every part and aspect..: an heroical design.

1948 Baker St. Jrnl. 3 443 You are familiar of course with the heroical efforts of poor Mr. Greenhough Smith to keep the magazine rolling when there were no stories from Watson.

2009 Jrnl. (Newcastle) (Nexis) 9 Feb. 48 Yesterday's heroical efforts were typified by superb skipper Jason Demetriou.

1769 B. Alexander tr. G. B. Morgagni Seats & Causes Dis. III. iv. 276 In the more firm and robust times of life, there is room for heroical cures, as they are call'd.

1827 N. Amer. Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 4 340 Polypharmacy, and heroical remedies, as we are pleased to term them, have too long occupied the attention of American practitioners.

1884 Med. News 13 Sept. 282/2 Over and over again has the attempt been made, to cut short typho-malarial fever by heroical doses of quinine.

1931 Internat. Med. Digest 18 36/2 The patient had another relapse of the anemia, and in an attempt to institute another heroical liver cure, incoercible vomiting appeared for a whole week.