Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to William Shakespeare's play Macbeth (circa 1603-1607) about a regicide and the supernatural.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Macbeth +‎ -ian

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Examples

  • What a tired old transparant device - "I can't think why this would happen, so I'll introduce a really obvious Macbethian prophecy that hasn't been foreshadowed at all, using unnecessary made-up words not used before, that will make the characters act in the necessary way".

    A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin Adam Whitehead 2010

  • As recently as one week ago, Hillary was still being widely depicted as a Lady Macbethian figure, a kind of she-demon who was still potentially scheming to take the race to the convention, thus destroying the Democratic Party in service of her insatiable ambition.

    Hillary Privately Urging Her Pledged Delegates To Vote For Obama At Convention 2009

  • Even if you soundly reject Hillary's arguments as pure Lady-Macbethian cynicism, and even if you think they'll fail, which they almost certainly will, the fact remains that it is within her rights under party rules to make them to super-delegates, and super-delegates are free to listen to them if they wish.

    Super-Delegates 2009

  • Obama's case that he's the high-road politician beset upon by Hillary's Lady-Macbethian efforts to tear him down would obviously be tougher to make if the Obama camp starts seriously invoking Whitewater, cattle futures, and other ghosts and goblins from the 1990s that continue to haunt the wingnut imagination.

    Will Obama Campaign Start Hitting Hillary Over Whitewater And Cattle Futures? 2009

  • Obama's case that he's the high-road politician beset upon by Hillary's Lady-Macbethian ambitions

    Will Obama Campaign Start Hitting Hillary Over Whitewater And Cattle Futures? 2009

  • Even if you soundly reject Hillary's arguments as pure Lady-Macbethian cynicism, and even if you think they'll fail, which they almost certainly will, the fact remains that it is within her rights under party rules to make them to super-delegates, and super-delegates are free to listen to them if they wish.

    A Sane Discussion Of Hillary And The Popular Vote 2009

  • Though for haggardness of expression and ugliness of feature they might have been taken for a band of Macbethian witches,

    The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe

  • Even Mrs. Evringham had buried the Macbethian dagger, and wore the meek and patient air of one misunderstood; but nothing would have amazed the child so much as to be told that she had had anything to do with this metamorphosis.

    Jewel Clara Louise Burnham 1890

  • Princesses, and except in _Goneril's_ brief Lady-Macbethian scene with her husband, neither of the Misses LEAR has much dramatic chance.

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, November 19, 1892 Various 1876

  • In the mean time, I wish my Macbethian wizardess would tell me "that Cowslip Dale should come to Strawberry Hill;" which by the etiquette of oracles, you know, would certainly happen, because so improbable.

    The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 4 Horace Walpole 1757

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