Augean

[aw-jee-uh n]

adjective

resembling the Augean stables in filthiness or degradation.

difficult and unpleasant: an Augean chore.

Origin of Augean

1590–1600; < Latin Augē(us) of Augeas (Greek Augeí(ās) + -us adj. suffix) + -an

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for augean

Contemporary Examples of augean

I had to chase the chickens back into the coop and close the door so I could finish with the Augean Stables of the chicken pen.
What Did TJ Mean By “Pursuit of Happiness,” Anyway?
P. J. O’Rourke
June 8, 2014
The Bush White House staff has begun the Augean task of spinning the Bush legacy.
Carnival of the Shameless
Christopher Buckley
January 4, 2009

Historical Examples of augean

He has done much to cleanse the Augean stables of the English theatre.
Personality in Literature
Rolfe Arnold Scott-James
As well might Hercules have attempted to tidy up the Augean stables with a squirt.
Diary of a Pilgrimage
Jerome K. Jerome
It is an Augean stable we have to clean, but Hercules was one, and we are many.
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 6, December 1864
Various
But the task is vast, it is herculean, like unto the cleaning of the Augean stables.
The Johnstown Horror
James Herbert Walker
Cleaning the Augean stables was something of the same sort of a job.
With the Doughboy in France
Edward Hungerford

British Dictionary definitions for augean

Augean

adjective

extremely dirty or corrupt

Word Origin for Augean

C16: after Augeas; see Augean stables

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for augean

Augean

adj.

"filthy," 1590s, in reference to Augean stable, the cleansing of which was one of the labors of Herakles, from Greek Augeias, like the stable of Augeas, king of Elis, which contained 3,000 oxen and had gone uncleansed for 30 years. Herakles purified it in one day by turning the river Alpheus through it.