Orphic

[ awr-fik ]

/ ˈɔr fɪk /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR Orphic ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

of or relating to Orpheus.

resembling the music attributed to Orpheus; entrancing.

pertaining to a religious or philosophical school maintaining a form of the cult of Dionysus, or Bacchus, ascribed to Orpheus as founder: Orphic mysteries.

(often lowercase) mystic; oracular.

RELATED WORDS

Origin of Orphic

1670–80; < Greek Orphikós (cognate with Latin Orphicus), equivalent to Orph(eús) Orpheus + -ikos -ic

Related forms

Or·phi·cal·ly, adverb

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

Examples from the Web for orphic

The Orphic, chiefly deserving mention as the probable foundation of the Eleusinian.
Mysticism and its Results|John Delafield
Strabo's—or rather Artemidorus'—parallel is the same as that of the Orphic poem, and, probably, is referrible to the same source.
The Ethnology of the British Islands|Robert Gordon Latham
The former, which is St. Jude's word, almost invariably means "rocks," but in an Orphic poem of the fourth century means "spots."
The Expositor's Bible:|Alfred Plummer
The Orphic Sect believed that "release" from the wheel of life was to be obtained by religious ceremonial and ritual.
A Critical History of Greek Philosophy|W. T. Stace

These are the oracles and orphic words that get lodged in the mind and bend a man's most stubborn will.
Emerson and Other Essays|John Jay Chapman

British Dictionary definitions for orphic

Orphic

/ (ˈɔːfɪk) /

adjective

of or relating to Orpheus or Orphism

(sometimes not capital) mystical or occult

Derived Forms

Orphically, adverb

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