Orphic
Americanadjective
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of or relating to Orpheus or Orphism
-
(sometimes not capital) mystical or occult
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of Orphic
1670–80; < Greek Orphikós (cognate with Latin Orphicus ), equivalent to Orph ( eús ) Orpheus + -ikos -ic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And it’s a clumsy one, attempting in the third act to weave aria pauses into a breakneck pace and an abrupt, Orphic turn.
From New York Times ● Jun. 26, 2022
But the most important thing — an Orphic struggle if ever there was one — was not to look back.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 17, 2021
Aucoin first explored the subject in a 2014 piece for countertenor, violin and orchestra called “The Orphic Moment.”
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 29, 2020
But some novelists have turned to music not to envy its Orphic power but to prod a bit dubiously at the very idea of attention as we’ve come to conceive of it.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 27, 2015
In that vision of human destiny, of the descent and ascent of the human soul, the old Orphic doctrine is united with the star-lore of the Euphrates.
From Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius by Dill, Samuel
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.
