momentousadj.

1652 L. S. Natures Dowrie x. 18 In such particulars..as are not momentous to the impairing of the publick welfare.

1656 H. Jeanes Mixture Scholasticall Divinity 15 There remaineth a second objection, which is the more momentous.

1704 J. Swift Tale of Tub v. 119 It was to supply such momentous Defects, that I have been prevailed on..to take Pen in Hand.

1732 J. Mitchell Poems Several Occasions II. 82 My stranger Clay might decently have lain..till the dreadful Trumpet's Sound Summon the Dead to Judgment, Great Assize! To Sons of Men eternally momentuous!

a1761 J. Cawthorn Poems (1771) 202 Who..could decide whene'er they met Momentous truths without a bett.

1844 C. Thirlwall Hist. Greece VIII. lx. 77 His death forms a momentous epoch in Grecian history.

1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People vi. §6. 325 The ten years which follow the fall of Wolsey are among the most momentous in our history.

1922 ‘R. Crompton’ Just—William xii. 233 William..brought forth his momentous announcement. ‘I've gotter dog,’ he said with an air of importance.

1988 G. Swift Out of this World 11 ‘I've lived to see men land on the moon.’ As if he truly found the fact momentous.

1667 J. Corbet Disc. Relig. Eng. 2 The Roman-Catholicks in England,..being Rich and Powerful,..are very momentous, and seem to be capable of great Designs.

1846 W. S. Landor Imaginary Conversat. in Wks. I. 464/1 Epaminondas was undoubtedly a momentous man, and formidable to Lacedæmon.

1898 G. B. Shaw Widowers' Houses in Plays Pleasant & Unpleasant 13 Cokane, hardly less momentous than Sartorius himself, contemplates Trench with the severity of a judge.

1996 Tennis Week 23 May 3 ‘Momentous Martina’: Martina Hingis became the youngest player ever to defeat Steffi Graf.

1775 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 65 278 It seems reasonable to infer, that the momentous force is much superior to the simple pressure of the column IK.