Definitions

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

  • adjective Alternative spelling of Byzantine.
  • noun historical A byzant (coin).

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Ted Nesi explains what he calls the byzantine pricing structure here.

    Paywall problem at Murdoch paper Roy Greenslade 2010

  • Bracelet in byzantine weave in shiny silver aluminum, made from tiny little 1/8th inch rings.

    Valentines, part the first mllelaurel 2009

  • ‡ The word byzantine is often applied to a group of intricately connected and rigidly applied regulations or traditions, or to a complex bureaucracy that insists on formal requirements.

    Byzantine Empire 2002

  • The judgment - in a fight over investments that Judge Newbould calls "byzantine" - provides a look inside the collapse of Canada's $30-billion asset-backed commercial paper ABCP market, which seized up as the first signs of the global financial crisis began to set in four years ago.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed JEFF GRAY 2011

  • The judgment - in a fight over investments that Judge Newbould calls "byzantine" - provides a look inside the collapse of Canada's $30-billion asset-backed commercial paper ABCP market, which seized up as the first signs of the global financial crisis began to set in four years ago.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed JEFF GRAY 2011

  • Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades and his lieutenants have spent the past year building the bandwidth they believe they need to squeeze every advantage out of what one aide called the "byzantine" nomination process.

    Washington Post: Breaking News, World, US, DC News & Analysis Philip Rucker 2011

  • Italy and the Vatican -- can safely be described as byzantine, with apologies due to

    Politics Daily David Gibson 2010

  • Italy and the Vatican -- can safely be described as byzantine, with apologies due to

    Politics Daily David Gibson 2010

  • Italy and the Vatican -- can safely be described as byzantine, with apologies due to

    Politics Daily David Gibson 2010

  • Wilde described hisdrama as "byzantine", and it can beoverdone: Zawe Ashton's Salome is prone to fondling herself in the fashion of young ladies who would like to get to know you better after you have called their premium-rate phone line.

    Salome 2010

Comments

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  • Can't this also mean very complex, particularly when related to bureaucracy and such? Or am I making that up?

    December 22, 2007

  • Yes it can.

    December 22, 2007

  • can I get a time-frame?, when was the Byzantine Empire?

    June 20, 2008

  • I think the meaning widdershins uses refers to the idea that the Byzantine court, its politics, and/or the empire's bureaucracy were so, well, byzantine.

    June 20, 2008