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)
- (chemistry, physics, transitive, intransitive) To sublimate.
- (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
- 1857, E. P. Whipple, Harper’s Magazine
- (transitive) To exalt; to heighten; to improve; to purify.
- Synonym: sublimate (archaic)
- (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.
- 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
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)
- Noble and majestic.
- 1842, Thomas De Quincey, Cicero (published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine)
- the sublime Julian leader
- 1842, Thomas De Quincey, Cicero (published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine)
- Impressive and awe-inspiring, yet simple.
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sublime scenery
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a sublime deed
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1718, Matthew Prior, “To Dr. Sherlock, On His Practical Discourse Concerning Death”, in Poems on Several Occasions[1]:
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Easy in words thy style, in sense sublime.
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1897, John Munro, chapter VI, in A Trip to Venus:
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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.
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1993, Richard Klein, Cigarettes are sublime, London: Picador, published 1995, →ISBN, page 62:
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Cigarettes are poison and they taste bad; they are not exactly beautiful, they are exactly sublime.
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- (obsolete) Lifted up; high in place; exalted aloft; uplifted; lofty.
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- Sublime on these a tower of steel is reared.
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- (obsolete) Elevated by joy; elated.
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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:
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While thir hearts were jocund and ſublime, / Drunk with Idolatry, drunk with Wine,
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- Lofty of mien; haughty; proud.
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
impressive and awe-inspiring
Noun[edit]
sublime (plural sublime)
- Something sublime.
Translations[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
Adjective[edit]
sublime
- definite of sublime
- plural of sublime
Etymology[edit]
From Middle French sublime, borrowed from Latin excellent.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
sublime (plural sublime)
- sublime, extraordinary
Verb[edit]
sublime
- inflection of sublimate:
- first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- second-person singular imperative
Further reading[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
sublime
- inflection of sublime:
- strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
- strong nominative/accusative plural
- weak nominative all-gender singular
- weak accusative feminine/neuter singular
Italian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Latin excellent.
Adjective[edit]
sublime (masculine and feminine plural sublime)
- sublime
Related terms[edit]
Adjective[edit]
sub-adhesive
- 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)
- 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)
- sublime
Noun[edit]
sublime m, f (plural sublime)
- sublime
Etymology 2[edit]
See the etymology of the main entry.
Verb[edit]
sublime
- first-person singular (I) present subjunctive of sublimate
- third-person singular (he and she, also used with you and others) present subjunctive of sublimate
- third-person singular (you) affirmative imperative of sublimate
- third-person singular (you) negative imperative of sublimate
Related terms[edit]
Spanish[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Latin excellent.
Adjective[edit]
sublime (plural sublime)
- sublime
Verb[edit]
sublime
- Formal second-person singular (you) imperative form of sublimate.
- First-person singular (me) present subjunctive form of sublimate.
- Formal second-person singular (you) present subjunctive form of sublimate.
- Third-person singular (he, she, also used with you?) present subjunctive form of sublimate.