visionary

comparative more visionary · superlative most visionary

1. Having vision or foresight.

   No more theſe ſeenes my meditation aid, / Or lull to reſt the viſionary mind.

   1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Alexander Pope, page 163

2. Imaginary or illusory.

   To many, the visionary hope which is born of the imagination may seem the very mockery of nothing. We cannot imagine what we have never experienced.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 291

   2 more examples

   I wrapp’d myself in grandeur then, And donn’d a visionary crown— Yet it was not that Fantasy Had thrown her mantle over me— But that, among the rabble—men, Lion ambition is chain’d down— […]

   1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems

   Here Mr. Jackson smiled once more upon the company; and, applying his left thumb to the tip of his nose, worked a visionary coffee-mill with his right hand, thereby performing a very graceful piece of pantomime (then much in vogue, but now, unhappily, almost obsolete) which was familiarly denominated taking a grinder.

   1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers

3. Prophetic or revelatory.

   Here frequent, at the viſionary hour, / When muſing midnight reigns or ſilent noon, / Angelic harps are in full concert heard, / And voiced chaunting from the wood-crown’d hill, / The deepening dale, or inmoſt ſilvan glade[…]

   1727, James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Works of James Thomson, page 69

4. Idealistic or utopian.

   a visionary scheme or project

   1 more example

   I confeſs, the Merit of this Candour and Condeſcenſion is very much leſſened ; becauſe your Lordſhip hardly leaves us Room to offer our good Wiſhes ; removing all our Difficulties, and ſupplying our Wants, faſter than the moſt viſionary Projector can adjuſt his Schemes.

   c. 1712, Jonathan Swift, “A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue”, in The Works of J.S., volume I, Dublin: George Faulkner, published 1735, page 187

plural visionaries

1. Someone who has visions; a seer.
2. An impractical dreamer.

   Along with the good planners there are lots of wild-eyed visionaries who don’t relate ideas to real-life practicalities.

   1968, Engineering News-Record, volume 181, page 112

   3 more examples

   For seven years [Christopher Columbus] begged persistently for aid, but in vain. He was looked upon as a visionary, and the very boys in the street mocked him as a lunatic. At length he was permitted to lay his plans before a committee of learned men, but only to have them ridiculed, the council dismissing him as a foolish enthusiast.

   1897, Charles Morris, A History of the United States of America: Its People, and Its Institutions, page 18

   In a military sense Russia is defenceless, and we all supposed it a proof that they were mere visionaries when they started negotiations by insisting upon not surrendering any Russian territory to the Germans.

   1918 January 3, Bertrand Russell, “The German Peace Offer”, in The Tribunal; republished as Autobiography, 1998, →ISBN, pages 308–9

   Jefferson’s intellectual prowess led some political opponents to dismiss him as a visionary, but he was remarkably successful in politics.

   1991, Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., “Jefferson, Thomas”, in Eric Foner, John A. Garraty, editors, The Reader’s Companion to American History, →ISBN, page 592

3. Someone who has creative and positive ideas about the future.

   Robertson was finally asked to step down at the end of 1961. His successor would be Dr Beeching, who was seen as both visionary and axeman.

   2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51