Dictionary

Rhadamanthine en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˌɹædəˈmænθɪn/
• /ˌɹædəˈmænθaɪn/
• /ˌɹædəˈmænθin/

Etymology

From Rhadamanthus + -ine, after Rhadamanthus, a king in Greek myths.

Meanings

1. Strictly and uncompromisingly just.
   • It was going to another place where measures were sometimes subjected to Rhadamanthine scrutiny, but he hoped the just principles which this House had recognised by large majorities would be considered on their merits. 1906, The Parliamentary Debates, Great Britain. Parliament, page ccclxiv:
   • Little recks René, with a breast to cleanse, / Of Rhadamanthine law that reigned erewhile: / Brimful of truth, truth's outburst will convince / (Style or no style) who bears truth's brunt—the Prince. 1878, Robert Browning, The Two Poets of Croisic:
   • When the father comes home and finds Georgiein disgrace, and Janey in tears, of course the ideal Rhadamanthine thing to do is to lay the coping stone to the boy's wall of isolation, and to add a fresh supply to Janey's bitter fountain. But not being Rhadamanthine, only weak and human and paternal, the sinful man ignores the lines of discipline marked out, and takes Georgie and Janey to his arms with quite impartial caresses and a cheery well-favoured comfort. 1869, The Broadway, page 92:
2. Inflexibly rigorous or severe.
   • In a commodious gas-lit box, surrounded by books and papers, and with a mighty folio of loose leaves open before him — a book of Fate, in truth — sits a Rhadamanthine man, buttoned up in a great-coat often; for be it blazing July or frigid December, it is always cold at three o'clock in the morning. 1862, George Augustus Sala, Twice Around the Clock: Or, The Hours of the Day and Night in London:
   • And in these unruly islands I was prepared almost to welcome the face of Rhadamanthine severity. 1894, Robert Louis Stevenson, “VIII, Letters from Samoa”, in In the South Seas. Letters from Samoa, etc:

Forms

Synonyms

Rhadamanthean