meteorous

• “Pollux, worshipped those meteorous exhalations which, during a storm, appear on the masts of ships, and are supposed to denote an approaching calm.”

  The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

• “They give a reality to the circumjacent picture, which such a vanishing meteorous appearance can ill spare.”

  Essays: Second Series (1844)

• “They give a reality to the circumjacent picture which such a vanishing meteorous appearance can ill spare.”

  Essays — Second Series

• “Dim monster-forms that that disordered chaos alone could engender, the first reptile Colossal race that wreathe and crawl through the earliest stratum of a world labouring into life, coiled in the oozing matter or hovered through the meteorous vapours.”

  Zanoni

• “Arthur de Vallance had been drawn, by the grossest misrepresentations, to oppose a Prince whose real character, bursting through the mists of adversity, now dazzled the eyes of those who had affected to speak of him as a meteorous exhalation, owing its lustre to chance, and destitute of the inherent qualities which constitute true greatness.”

  The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 An Historical Novel

• “Was it possible to have been the companion of that supernatural visage; a meteorous refulgence producible at the will of him to whom that visage belonged, and partaking of the nature of that which accompanied my father's death?”

  Wieland; or the Transformation. An American Tale.

• “That it proceeded from a lamp or candle, borne by some one along the passages, was no untenable opinion, but was far less probable than that the effulgence was meteorous.”

  Arthur Mervyn Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793

• “As to the fly-catcher, I have not seen it; it is indeed one of the latest, but should appear about this time: and yet, amidst all this meteorous strife and war of the elements, two swallows discovered themselves, as long ago as April 11th, in frost and snow; but they withdrew quickly, and were not visible again for many days.”

  The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 1

• “The main of life is, indeed, composed of small incidents and petty occurences; of wishes for objects not remote, and grief for dissapointments of no fatal consequence; of insect vexations which sting us and fly away, impertinences which buzz awhile about us, and are heard no more; of meteorous pleasures which dance before us and are dissipated; of compliments which glide off the soul like other musick, and are forgotten by him that gave, and him that received them.”

  The Rambler, sections 55-112 (1750-1751); from The Works of Samuel Johnson in Sixteen Volumes, Vol. IV

• “Such meteorous appearances are to be explained in this way -- that they are the reflections of the Aurora Borealis, and it is highly probable they are caused principally by electricity. ”

  Andersen's Fairy Tales

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