of, relating to, or characteristic of Faust.
a Faustian novel.
sacrificing spiritual values for power, knowledge, or material gain.
a Faustian pact with the Devil.
characterized by spiritual dissatisfaction or torment.
possessed with a hunger for knowledge or mastery.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Would I have made the Faustian bargain from a place of raw desperation?
From Slate • Apr. 23, 2026
Other versions of the Faustian bargain tale end in regret; in this one, Johnson is content with his choice.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 9, 2025
Maggie’s Faustian trade of other people’s pain for her stature and comfort, however, has enough familiarity to make some of us stuff down a frustrated scream.
From Salon • Oct. 16, 2025
“The Apprentice,” which is labeled as inspired by true events, portrays Trump’s dealings with Cohn as a Faustian bargain that guided his rise as a businessman and, later, as a politician.
From Seattle Times • May 21, 2024
Embedded in the history of the gene is “the quest for eternal youth, the Faustian myth of abrupt reversal of fortune, and our own century’s flirtation with the perfectibility of man.”
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
