Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as parabolic.

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

  • adjective parabolic

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

  • adjective having the form of a parabola
  • adjective resembling or expressed by parables

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Then shall the King -- Magnificent title, here for the first and only time, save in parabolical language, given to Himself by the Lord Jesus, and that on the eve of His deepest humiliation!

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • Allusive, or parabolical, is a narration applied only to express some special purpose or conceit; which latter kind of parabolical wisdom was much more in use in the ancient times, as by the fables of AEsop, and the brief sentences of the seven, and the use of hieroglyphics may appear.

    The Advancement of Learning 2003

  • Allusive, or parabolical, is a narration applied only to express some special purpose or conceit; which latter kind of parabolical wisdom was much more in use in the ancient times, as by the fables of AEsop, and the brief sentences of the seven, and the use of hieroglyphics may appear.

    The Advancement of Learning Francis Bacon 1593

  • The sort of person given to staging extravagant parabolical dramas or writing out involute private imaginings is usually at a bit of a loss among artisans of more practical fantasies; or, often enough, their victim.

    Genet's Last Stand Geertz, Clifford 1992

  • If the scene of this parabolical history must be supposed to have been amongst the Jews, then there would some questions arise upon it: 1.

    From the Talmud and Hebraica 1602-1675 1979

  • But it is a wonder indeed, that they who were so given to and delighted in parables, and so dextrous in unfolding them, should stick in the outward shell of ceremonies, and should not have fetched out the parabolical and spiritual sense of them; neither should he be able to fetch them out.

    From the Talmud and Hebraica 1602-1675 1979

  • On the third point: the parabolical meaning is contained in the literal, since the words indicate something directly, and also something figuratively.

    Nature and Grace: Selections from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas 1954

  • Again, besides these four interpretations, there is the parabolical, which has been omitted.

    Nature and Grace: Selections from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas 1954

  • The houses, built of brick, were of two different types; some were covered with hemispherical or parabolical calottes, others had flat roofs with a tower in the fashion of a belvedere.

    The American Architect and Building News, Vol. 27, No. 733, January 11, 1890 Various

  • [166] "Although some Muhammadans, whose understandings are too refined to admit such gross conceptions, look on their Prophet's description as parabolical, and are willing to receive them in an allegorical or spiritual acceptation, yet the general and orthodox doctrine is, that the whole is to be strictly believed in the obvious and literal acceptance."

    The Faith of Islam Edward Sell

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