sibylline

alternative misspelling sybilline

1. not comparableOf or pertaining to or resembling a sibyl or female oracle, especially the Cumaean Sibyl and the Sibylline Books.First known use late 16th c.

   Another early form of rhapsodomancy is represented by the sibylline books.

   1998, Deborah J. Bennett, Randomness, Harvard University Press, page 42

   3 more examples

   Cleopatra immediately comes down to the chair of state; seizes Ptolemy and drags him out of his seat; then takes his place in the chair. Ftatateeta seats herself on the step of the loggia, and sits there, watching the scene with sybilline intensity.

   1898, George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra

   But directly she had closed the door behind her, Mother Théot's manner underwent a chance. Here the broad light of day appeared to divest her of all her sybilline attributes. She became just an ugly old woman, wrinkled and hook-nosed, dressed in shabby draperies that were grey with age and dirt, and with claw-like hands that looked like the talons of a bird of prey.

   1922 August, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], chapter 23, in The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC

   Bitch ov a sibylline vulva / Usurpress and liar / Centuries wept because ov thee / Where art thou now in the hour ov trial?

   2014, “Amen”, in Nergal (lyrics), The Satanist, performed by Behemoth, Track 5

   Synonyms: sibyllic

   1. broadlynot comparableHaving oracle-like predicting powers, clairvoyant.

      Synonyms: sibyllic

   2. broadlynot comparableOccult, mysterious.

      Synonyms: sibyllic, enigmatic

2. not comparableExcessively and exorbitantly expensive. (In allusion to the Sibyl who sold three books to Tarquinius Superbus at the price of the original nine.)

plural sibyllines · alternative misspelling sybilline

1. One of the Sibylline Oracles or Sibylline Books.