marmoreal

comparative more marmoreal · superlative most marmoreal

1. literaryResembling marble or a marble statue; cold, smooth, white, etc.; marblelike.

   Irma had collapsed into a chair, and her long marmoreal face was buried in her hands.

   1950, Mervyn Peake, chapter 6, in Gormenghast (The Gormenghast Trilogy; II), revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published October 1968, →OCLC, section 6, page 34

   5 more examples

   How many a night serene, shall I behold / Those vvarm attractive orbits, close inshrined / In ether, over vvhich Love's column rose / Marmoreal, trophied round vvith golden hair.

   1798 July, Walter Savage Landor, “Book IV”, in Gebir; a Poem, […], London: […] Rivingtons, […], →OCLC, page 35, lines 29–32

   [T]he green / And glancing shadows of the sea did play / O'er its marmoreal depth: […]

   1817 December (indicated as 1818), Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, “Canto First”, in Laon and Cythna; or, The Revolution of the Golden City: A Vision of the Nineteenth Century. […], London: […] [F]or Sherwood, Neely, & Jones, […]; and C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier, […]; by B[uchanan] M‘Millan, […], →OCLC, stanza XX, page 11

   Each feminine delight of florid lip, / Eyes brimming o'er and brow bowed down with love, / Marmoreal neck and bosom uberous,— […]

   1869, Robert Browning, “IX. Juris Doctor Johannes-Baptista Bottinius.”, in The Ring and the Book. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., →OCLC, pages 177–178, lines 51–53

   The marmoreal whiteness of her perfect neck and firm, well-rounded arms was emphasized by a sharp contrast. Of color there was none, save for the slight flush of health in her cheeks and the rich, red line of her strong, sensitive mouth.

   1901 December, Edward S[ims] Van Zile, “The Chopin Society”, in Perkins, the Fakeer: A Travesty on Reincarnation […], New York, N.Y.; London: The Smart Set Publishing Co., published April 1903, →OCLC, page 246

   Youth's infinite choice of roads had given place to a rigid groove, presided over by a relentless marmoreal blonde.

   1932 July, John Buchan, “Mr Reginald Daker”, in The Gap in the Curtain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, section VI, page 217

   Synonyms: marmoraceous, marmorean, marmoreous

2. literaryobsoleteMade out of marble.

   1 more example

   But each night as he stood on that high marble terrace with the curious urns and carven rail and looked off over that hushed sunset of beauty and unearthly immanance he felt the bondage of dream's tyrannous gods; for in no wise could he leave that lofty spot, or descend the wide marmoreal flights flung endlessly down to where those streets of elder witchery lay outspread and beckoning.

   c. 1926 – 1927 (date written), H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft, “The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath”, in August Derleth, Donald Wandrei, compilers, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, published 1943, →OCLC; republished in August Derleth, editor, The Arkham Sampler, volume 1, number 1, Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, winter 1948, →OCLC, part I, page 50

   Synonyms: marble