manxome

comparative more manxome · superlative most manxome

1. poeticrarefearsome, monstrous

   He took his vorpal sword in hand: / Long time the manxome foe he sought— / So rested he by the Tumtum tree, / And stood awhile in thought.

   1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “[Looking-Glass House.] Jabberwocky.”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 22

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   Of only one adder were we ever possessed, which we kept, by collusion with a home-boarder, in a cucumber-frame at Harrow. In consideration of his providing the manxome beast with house-room (we early perceived that in our own house the adder would be unwelcome), and because we couldn't well get into his father's garden without him, we permitted him to share the fearful delight of routing our pet out with a rake (it was a retiring creature) "between Bills", and trying to make him eat frogs.

   1907 September 28, “The Trial of the Serpent”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 104, number 2709, page 389, column 1

   Out from the odex came a fang-gaping ilps, a vicious manxome monster which Governor Troop demolished with five well-placed immaculately-timed questions.

   1987, Hugh Cook, The Wordsmiths and the Warguild (Chronicles of an Age of Darkness), Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire: Colin Smythe, →ISBN, page 192

   Caleb had only fought a few manxome foes in his short life, and this, a Jabberwock. It would take the height of readiness and strength to stand a hero's chance.

   2016, E. S. Wesley, The Outs, Curiosity Quills Press, →ISBN, page 197