Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to hagiography; relating to the Hagiographa, or to sacred writings.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • of or pertaining to the Hagiographa, or to sacred writings; -- same as hagiographal.
  • of or pertaining to hagiography.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to hagiography.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He is joined by self-promoting individuals like Randall Terry, who is willing to force a senior Vatican official into a humiliating apology to fellow bishops so that he can get himself some column inches, and Frank Pavone, who places his own face on his antiabortion billboards and for whom the term hagiographic was coined.

    Jon O'Brien: The Real Idea of a University 2009

  • Allan Benton, a smoked-bacon artisan in Madisonville, Tenn., has received the kind of hagiographic accolades from food magazines and celebrity chefs usually reserved for food magazines and celebrity chefs.

    The Bacon Backlash Katy McLaughlin 2010

  • According to Phipps, students of Aurobindo and the Mother have a tendency to take this kind of hagiographic inflation to extreme heights.

    The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have already accomplished the metaphysical victory Tusar N Mohapatra 2009

  • In her astute review of Louis Begley's biographical essay on Kafka [NYR, July 17], Zadie Smith draws on Gustav Janouch's Conversations with Kafka (1951), while observing that the work is "hagiographic" and that Kafka's words are "'reported speech' and most probably prettified for publication."

    Kafka's Unreliable Friend Harman, Mark 2008

  • Bachmann announced her presidency today in the small Iowa town where she was born, and tomorrow Palin will be attending a premiere of the hagiographic movie about her life so far in a different Iowa town.

    Chris Weigant: Bachmann Rising, Palin Fading? Chris Weigant 2011

  • Bachmann announced her presidency today in the small Iowa town where she was born, and tomorrow Palin will be attending a premiere of the hagiographic movie about her life so far in a different Iowa town.

    Chris Weigant: Bachmann Rising, Palin Fading? Chris Weigant 2011

  • Nostalgia, of course, is the tenderest trap, and those days have taken on a hagiographic glow.

    Live and Let Love Andrea Buchanan 2011

  • But with Mr. Putin seeking to return to the presidency in elections March 4, state media have stepped up their hagiographic coverage of the man who has run Russia for the past 12 years.

    Radio Move Is Viewed as Kremlin 'Pressure' Gregory L. White 2012

  • I thought their hagiographic leaflet about Boris Johnson – "how our borough is safer under Mayor Boris Johnson" and "London's transport being transformed under Mayor Boris" – was unique to them.

    Simon Hoggart's week: No country for ordinary folk 2011

  • Bachmann announced her presidency today in the small Iowa town where she was born, and tomorrow Palin will be attending a premiere of the hagiographic movie about her life so far in a different Iowa town.

    Chris Weigant: Bachmann Rising, Palin Fading? Chris Weigant 2011

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  • Originally referring to religious figures of saints, the secular usage refers to reverential portayals of prominent figures, such as dictators or royalty.

    June 21, 2009