Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or contained in the Bible.
  • adjective Being in keeping with the nature of the Bible, especially.
  • adjective Suggestive of the personages or times depicted in the Bible.
  • adjective Suggestive of the prose or narrative style of the King James Bible.
  • adjective Very great in extent; enormous.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to the Bible or to the sacred writings: as, biblical learning; biblical criticism.
  • In accord with the teachings of the Bible; scriptural.
  • Authoritative; true.
  • Synonyms See scriptural.

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

  • adjective Pertaining to, or derived from, the Bible.

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

  • adjective Of, or relating to, the Bible
  • adjective In accordance with the teachings of the Bible (according to some interpretation of the later)
  • adjective idiomatic Very large, exceeding previous records.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or pertaining to or contained in or in accordance with the Bible
  • adjective in keeping with the nature of the Bible or its times or people

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Medieval Latin biblicus, from Late Latin biblia, Bible; see Bible.]

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Examples

  • That means planting what he refers to as "biblical wheat" over the coming weeks.

    Gardens of Eden Sprout in Synagogue and Church Yards, but They Aren't Very Fruitful Lucette Lagnado 2012

  • Speaking of tongue-blistering, I was gonna tell you how I came to know my Maytag man in what you call the biblical sense.

    Cheat Sheets 2010

  • The finest illustration of this is furnished by the French curé, who, to avoid being compelled, like other citizens, to pave the street in front of his house, quoted a saying which he described as biblical: paveant illi, ego non pavebo.

    The Art of Controversy 2004

  • As Tunisians flooded Lampedusa earlier this month, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, of the anti-immigrant Northern League, stoked fears that terrorists and al-Qaida supporters could have mingled among what he described as a "biblical exodus" of migrants.

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • Green has attributed his out-of-state popularity to a public speaking career that has taken him around the country over the past 10 years as part of WallBuilders, which seeks to educate the public about what it calls the biblical principles behind the nation's early history and the U.S. Constitution.

    statesman.com - Highschool 2010

  • Well aware that most of the sources on which she must rely were written in biblical times, 50 B.C. to A.D. 150 -- anywhere from two decades to two centuries after Cleopatra was born -- she informs us whether she is quoting Plutarch or Cicero or Dio in her characterizations, and, in the process, these thoroughly feisty, opinionated bards, too, become part of the tale.

    Stacy Schiff's new biography of "Cleopatra," reviewed by Maria Arana Marie Arana 2010

  • Why do fundy trolls always speak in biblical cliches?

    Think Progress » First same-sex couple weds in D.C. 2010

  • Also archaeologists, the Gears apply over thirty years of research with their backgrounds in biblical archaeology, religious studies, Greek, and Latin, to reveal a new and relatively unknown and historically unsupported biography of Jesus Christ, or Yeshua.

    “The Betrayal: The Lost Life of Jesus” by Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear (Forge, 2008) « The BookBanter Blog 2010

  • Rhinos … WHOLE FKN KINGDOM IS IN FEAR … and well it fkn should be, for death and chaos, shall decent upon his skanky arse, wreak HAVOCK and fkn RETRIBUTION in biblical fkn scales.

    Cheeseburger Gothic » Brief note from Der Bünker. 2009

  • BSG is steeped in biblical references, and so the religious nature of the ending should have been no surprise to those who spotted the references, particularly for those who remember the original series.

    God from the machine « Write Anything 2009

Comments

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  • Daily Express headline on September 3, 2015, as tweeted by JK Rowling (https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/639128612172599296)

    "Chaos as 'biblical' migrant crisis spreads across Europe"

    Biblical often means

    1. on an epic scale "of biblical proportions"

    2. euphemism for a sexual relationship "he knew her in the biblical sense"

    Neither is the linguistic legacy the Bible was probably going for.

    September 2, 2015

  • Silly headline. Sadly I have a list for this :-(

    September 2, 2015