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Webster 1913 Edition


Melancholic

Mel′an-cholˊic

,
Adj.
[L.
melancholicus
, Gr. [GREEK]: cf. F.
mélancholique
.]
Given to melancholy; depressed; melancholy; dejected; unhappy.
Just as the
melancholic
eye
Sees fleets and armies in the sky.
Prior.

Mel′an-cholˊic

,
Noun.
[Obs.]
1.
One affected with a gloomy state of mind.
J. Spenser.
2.
A gloomy state of mind; melancholy.
Clarendon.

Webster 1828 Edition


Melancholic

MEL'ANCHOLIC

,
Adj.
[See Melancholy.]
1.
Depressed in spirits; affected with gloom; dejected; hypochondriac. Grief indulged to excess, has a tendency to render a person melancholic.
2.
Produced by melancholy; expressive of melancholy; mournful; as melancholic strains.
Just as the melancholic eye,
See fleets and armies in the sky.
3.
Unhappy; unfortunate; causing sorrow; as accidents and melancholic perplexities.

MEL'ANCHOLIC

,
Noun.
One affected with a gloomy state of mind. [Melancholian, in a like sense, is not used.]
1.
A gloomy state of mind.

Definition 2024


melancholic

melancholic

English

Alternative forms

Adjective

melancholic (comparative more melancholic, superlative most melancholic)

  1. Filled with or affected by melancholy—great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
    • Prior
      Just as the melancholic eye / Sees fleets and armies in the sky.

Translations

Noun

melancholic (plural melancholics)

  1. A person who is habitually melancholy.
    • 2008 March 16, Garrison Keillor, “Woe Be Gone”, in New York Times:
      Kafka, Hart Crane, Jackson Pollock , Tennessee Williams , Mark Rothko , melancholics all, so why shouldn’t we accept our own bleakness and take long walks in the winter woods and look at the gnarled limbs of trees and struggle with the inscrutable and accept the beauty of permanent turmoil?