Dictionary

plethoric en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈplɛθəɹɪk/ (UK)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /plɛˈθɒɹɪk/ (UK)

Etymology

From Late Latin plethoricus, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek πληθωρικός (plēthōrikós), from πληθώρα (plēthṓra, “plethora”). By surface analysis, plethora + -ic.

Meanings

1. Suffering from plethora; ruddy in complexion, congested or swollen with blood.
   • a horse-leech, whose deep maw The plethoric King Swellfoot could not fill, And who, till full, will cling for ever. 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:
   • Harold Atkinson, her host, was a fine handsome grey-haired man, plethoric and somewhat corpulent, with an eye for a pretty woman […]. 1941, W Somerset Maugham, Up at the Villa, Vintage, published 2004, page 81:
   • If the predisposition to the disease has arisen from a plethoric state of the system, or from a turgescence in the vessels of the head, this is to be obviated by bleeding, both generally and topically, but more particularly the latter; an abstemious diet and proper exercise; and by a seton in the neck. 1842, Gibbons Merle, John Reitch, The Domestic Dictionary and Housekeeper’s Manual: Comprising Everything Related to Cookery, Diet, Economy and Medicine. By Gibbons Merle. The Medical Portion of the Work by John Reitch, M.D., London: William Strange, 21, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 360, column 2:
2. Excessive, overabundant, rife; loosely, abundant, varied.
   • the judges [...] were arranging their robes and coughing into their fists, the ebb and flow of their plethoric wigs like a flock of sheep on the run. 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 161:
3. Full or excessively full.
   • Behold the Mansion reared by Dædal Jack! See the Malt stored in many a plethoric sack, In the proud cirque of Juan's bivouac! 1977, K.M. Elizabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 63:

Forms

Coordinates

flushed

Deriveds

antiplethoric

Relateds

plethora

Translations (16)

fi verekäs (containing excessive blood) · fr pléthorique (overabundant) · et pletooriline (containing excessive blood) · ca pletòric (overabundant) · nb blodrik (containing excessive blood) · el πληθωρικός (overabundant) · nb oppsvulmet (overabundant) · pt pletórico (overabundant) · gl pletórico (overabundant) · hu vérbő (containing excessive blood) · sv pletorisk (containing excessive blood) · ro pletoric (overabundant) · nb blodfull (containing excessive blood) · el υπεραιμικός (containing excessive blood) · ca pletòric (containing excessive blood) · fi pletorinen (containing excessive blood)