gordian

1. alternativenot comparableAlternative form of Gordian.

   The final disentanglement of sister chromatids can only be achieved by cleavage of the "gordian knot" by separin.

   2000 May 26, Kim Nasmyth et al., “Splitting the Chromosome: Cutting the Ties That Bind Sister Chromatids”, in Science, volume 288, number 5470, →DOI, pages 1379–1384

   1 more example

   This fire, like the eye of gordian snake, Bewitch'd me towards; and I soon was near A sight too fearful for the feel of fear: In thicket hid I curs'd the haggard scene-- 500 The banquet of my arms, my arbour queen, Seated upon an uptorn forest root; And all around her shapes, wizard and brute, Laughing, and wailing, groveling, serpenting, Shewing tooth, tusk, and venom-bag, and sting!

   1818, John Keats, Endymion

comparative more Gordian · superlative most Gordian

1. Of or pertaining to Gordium (now Yassihüyük in Turkey), capital of Phrygia.
2. Of or pertaining to Gordius, king of Phrygia
3. Of the Gordian knot.
4. Twisted; convoluted; tied as a knot.

   […] cloſe the Serpent ſly, Inſinuating, wove with Gordian twine His braided train, […]

   1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 347–349

   2 more examples

   […] he found a palpitating snake, / Bright, and cirque-couchant in a dusky brake. / She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue, / Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue; […]

   1819, John Keats, “Lamia”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, part I, page 6

   When you put it that way it was so simple, so self-explanatory, so beautiful, so obvious that what had seemed the most Gordian problem was instantly almost mundane, and its elegance was its own proof.

   2005, Lance Parkin, The Gallifrey Chronicles, page 205

1. Gordianus, name of three Roman emperors.