English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English sublime, borrowed from Old French sublimate, from Latin sublimō (“to raise on high; to sublimate (in Medieval Latin)”).

Verb[edit]

sublime (third-person singular simple present sublime, present participle subliming, simple past and past participle sublimed)

  1. (chemistry, physics, transitive, intransitive) To sublimate.
  2. (transitive) To raise on high.
    • 1857, E. P. Whipple, Harper’s Magazine
      a soul sublimed by an idea above the region of vanity and conceit
  3. (transitive) To exalt; to heighten; to improve; to purify.
    Synonym: sublimate (archaic)
  4. (transitive) To dignify; to ennoble.
    • a. 1667, Jeremy Taylor, Clerus Domini, or, A discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness, and separation of the office ministerial together with the nature and manner of its power and operation
      An ordinary gift cannot sublime a person to a supernatural employment.
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle French sublime, from Latin sublime (“high”), from sub- (“up to, upwards”) + a root of uncertain affiliation often identified with Latin glue, ablative singular of adhesives (“oblique”) or level (“threshold, entrance, lintel”)

Adjective[edit]

sublime (comparative sublimate, superlative sublimest)

  1. Noble and majestic.
    • 1842, Thomas De Quincey, Cicero (published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine)
      the sublime Julian leader
  2. Impressive and awe-inspiring, yet simple.

    sublime scenery

    a sublime deed

    • 1718, Matthew Prior, “To Dr. Sherlock, On His Practical Discourse Concerning Death”, in Poems on Several Occasions‎[1]:

      Easy in words thy style, in sense sublime.

    • 1897, John Munro, chapter VI, in A Trip to Venus:

      We had entered the clouds. For half-an-hour we were muffled in a cold, damp mist, and total darkness, and had begun to think of going indoors when, all at once, the car burst into the pure and starlit region of the upper air. A cry of joyous admiration escaped from us all. The spectacle before us was indeed sublime.

    • 1993, Richard Klein, Cigarettes are sublime, London: Picador, published 1995, →ISBN, page 62:

      Cigarettes are poison and they taste bad; they are not exactly beautiful, they are exactly sublime.

  3. (obsolete) Lifted up; high in place; exalted aloft; uplifted; lofty.
    • Sublime on these a tower of steel is reared.
  4. (obsolete) Elevated by joy; elated.
    • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398, page 96:

      While thir hearts were jocund and ſublime, / Drunk with Idolatry, drunk with Wine,

  5. Lofty of mien; haughty; proud.
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

sublime (plural sublime)

  1. Something sublime.
Translations[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Adjective[edit]

sublime

  1. definite of sublime
  2. plural of sublime

Etymology[edit]

From Middle French sublime, borrowed from Latin excellent.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

sublime (plural sublime)

  1. sublime, extraordinary

Verb[edit]

sublime

  1. inflection of sublimate:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

sublime

  1. inflection of sublime:
    1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
    2. strong nominative/accusative plural
    3. weak nominative all-gender singular
    4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin excellent.

Adjective[edit]

sublime (masculine and feminine plural sublime)

  1. sublime

Related terms[edit]

Adjective[edit]

sub-adhesive

  1. vocative masculine singular of sublimes

References[edit]

  • sublime in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • sublime in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • sublime in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Illustrated Latin-French Dictionary, Hatchet
  • Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • (ambiguous) to fly aloft; to be carried into the sky: high or sublime (not in sublime or eminently) of iron, and go their way:

Middle French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin sublimes.

Adjective[edit]

sublime m or f (plural sublime)

  1. sublime (noble, majestic, magnificent, etc.)

Descendants[edit]

Portuguese[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Latin sublime.

Adjective[edit]

sublime m or f (plural sublime, comparable)

  1. sublime

Noun[edit]

sublime m, f (plural sublime)

  1. sublime

Etymology 2[edit]

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb[edit]

sublime

  1. first-person singular (I) present subjunctive of sublimate
  2. third-person singular (he and she, also used with you and others) present subjunctive of sublimate
  3. third-person singular (you) affirmative imperative of sublimate
  4. third-person singular (you) negative imperative of sublimate

Related terms[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Latin excellent.

Adjective[edit]

sublime (plural sublime)

  1. sublime

Verb[edit]

sublime

  1. Formal second-person singular (you) imperative form of sublimate.
  2. First-person singular (me) present subjunctive form of sublimate.
  3. Formal second-person singular (you) present subjunctive form of sublimate.
  4. Third-person singular (he, she, also used with you?) present subjunctive form of sublimate.