mazeful en · ADJ · etymology 1
Etymology
From maze + -ful.
Meanings
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(obsolete) Causing amazement; wonderful.
He could not quite draw from the New York Philharmonic the mazeful shadelike world into which Schubert recedes at times in this wonderful masterpiece, where risks are taken so hazardous that only genius as innocent as Schubert's could […]
1951, The Manchester Guardian Weekly, volume 65, page 30:The old enchanter who laid down his head In woman's mazeful lap was not betrayed By love or doting, though he gave a maid His rod and book and lies now like the dead.
1964, Milton Thomas Wilson, Poetry of Midcentury, 1940–1960, page 204:A precious memory is the mazeful notes of Dr. Brodsky's interpretation of the romantic cadenza; […]
1929, The Musical Times and Singing-class Circular, page 174:
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Mazy.
The door bell rang and Martha went to answer the door, stepping through the mazeful crowd.
2010, Clair V. Quinnine Jr., The Ghetto Oscar:It is as if Spenser is eroding our usual distinction between the Gorgon's mazeful head and - the beneficent effects of other women's beauty.
1992, Dorothy Anne Stephens, Into Others Arms: Spenser’s Feminine Wanderings, page 59:In both a mazefull ſolitarineſſe: / In night of ſprites the gaſtly powers to ſtur, / In thee or ſprites or ſprited gaſtlineſſe: […]
c. 1580s, Philip Sidney, “Astrophel and Stella”, in [Mary Sidney], editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia […] [The New Arcadia], 3rd edition, London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1598, →OCLC, sonnet 96, page 564:He watched with desperate eyes as she moved sensually to shut windows and return to the hidden passages of her mazeful mind.
2002, Jeffrey K. Hill, The Last Courtesan, page 49:It was a mazeful wonder; / Thrice three times it was enwalled / With an emerald— / Sealèd so asunder.
1897, Francis Thompson, “[Sight and Insight.] The Mistress of Vision.”, in New Poems, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Co., →OCLC, stanza II, page 3:Within this 'mazeful wonder', all things are suspended in trance, the birds hang a-dream, the sun swings like a thurible, and, at the garden's heart, in the Land of Luthany, is the Lady of fair weeping, whose sorrowful song the poet would capture in verse.
1959, John Cowie Reid, Francis Thompson: Man and Poet, page 141:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more mazeful | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most mazeful | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |