Search the Dictionary

Liveliness of imagination or fancy; intellectual and moral enthusiasm; capacity for ardor and zeal. And bless their critic with a poet's fire.Pope.

Burning zeal or passion; elevated and noble enthusiasm; glowing imagination; passionate excitement or anger. "In a flame of zeal severe." Milton. Where flames refin'd in breasts seraphic glow. Pope. Smit with the love of sister arts we came, And met congenial, mingling flame with flame. Pope.

Excitement; commotion; enthusiasm.

Violent or extreme excitement; overmastering agitation or enthusiasm. Her wit began to be with a divine fury inspired. Sir P. Sidney.

consisting of gestures; -- said especially with reference to dancing. Carried away by the enthusiasm of the gestic art. Sir W. Scott.

To make a sentimental or untimely exhibition of affection; to display enthusiasm in a silly, demonstrative manner. [Colloq.]

To excite to a transport of enthusiasm, frenzy, or madness; to elate unduly or excessively. Intoxicated with the sound of those very bells. G. Eliot. They are not intoxicated by military success. Jowett (Thuc. ).

A high excitement of mind; an elation which rises to enthusiasm, frenzy, or madness. That secret intoxication of pleasure. Spectator.

A species of demoniac enthusiasm or possession coming upon one who had accidentally looked upon a nymph; ecstasy. [R.] De Quincey. The nympholepsy of some fond despair. Byron.

ving an engine; the power of truth, or of argument, in producing conviction; the power of enthusiasm. "The power of fancy." Shak.

the product Of those ill-mated marriages. Milton. These institutions are the products of enthusiasm. Burke.

To talk with unreasonable enthusiasm or excessive passion or excitement; -- followed by about, of, or on; as, he raved about her beauty. The hallowed scene Which others rave on, though they know it not. Byron.

Habitual freedom from enthusiasm, inordinate passion, or overheated imagination; calmness; coolness; gravity; seriousness; as, the sobriety of riper years. Mirth makes them not mad, Nor sobriety sad. Denham.

Energy, vivacity, ardor, enthusiasm, courage, etc. "Write it then, quickly," replied Bede; and summoning all his spirits together, like the last blaze of a candle going out, he indited it, and expired. Fuller.

nation such as animates a poet, artist, or musician, in composing or performing; rapture; enthusiasm; spirit; energy.

A state of lively and excited interest; zeal; ardor; fervor; passion; enthusiasm; earnestness; as, the warmth of love or piety; he replied with much warmth. "Spiritual warmth, and holy fires." Jer. Taylor. That warmth . . . which agrees with Christian zeal. Sprat.

Fig.: A swelling or excitement of thought, feeling, or energy; a tide; as, waves of enthusiasm. Wave front (Physics), the surface of initial displacement of the particles in a medium, as a wave of vibration advances. -- Wave length (Physics), the space, reckoned in the direction of propagation, occupied by a complete…

To utter a whoop, or loud cry, as eagerness, enthusiasm, or enjoyment; to cry out; to shout; to halloo; to utter a war whoop; to hoot, as an owl. Each whooping with a merry shout. Wordsworth. When naught was heard but now and then the howl Of some vile cur, or whooping of the owl. W. Browne.

ything; eagerness in favor of a person or cause; ardent and active interest; engagedness; enthusiasm; fervor. "Ambition varnished o'er with zeal." Milton. "Zeal, the blind conductor of the will." Dryden. "Zeal's never-dying fire." Keble. I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. R…

The character and behavior of a zealot; excess of zeal; fanatical devotion to a cause. Enthusiasm, visionariness, seems the tendency of the German; zeal, zealotry, of the English; fanaticism, of the French. Coleridge.