Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Inclined to believe in superstition.
- adjective Of, characterized by, or proceeding from superstition.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Believing superstitions, religious or other; addicted to superstition; especially, very scrupulous and rigid in religious observances through fear or credulity; full of idle fancies and scruples in regard to religion.
- Pertaining to, partaking of, or proceeding from superstition: as, superstitious rites.
- Over-exact; scrupulous beyond need, as from credulous fear.
- Idolatrously devoted.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to superstition; proceeding from, or manifesting, superstition.
- adjective Evincing superstition; overscrupulous and rigid in religious observances; addicted to superstition; full of idle fancies and scruples in regard to religion.
- adjective Overexact; scrupulous beyond need.
- adjective (Law), [Eng.] the use of a gift or bequest, as of land, etc., for the maintenance of the rites of a religion not tolerated by the law.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Susceptible to
superstitions . - adjective Arising from or having the character of
superstitions .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective showing ignorance of the laws of nature and faith in magic or chance
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Societies of Paris, etc. Neurologist to Freedmen's Hospital and Epiphany Dispensary, Lecturer on Nervous and Mental Diseases, Howard University, Washington, D.C. THERE is a general impression that the explanations of natural phenomena, including human destinies, to which the term superstitious is given are usually attributable to the vestiges of traditional cosmogonies of our tribal ancestors handed down to children at the knees of their parents or guardians.
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Until we can rid ourselves of what I call the superstitious awe of the Bible, we will never understand it rightly.
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The instructor first disposed of what he called superstitious "heresies" concerning the gas, in order to prevent the men from having panic and
With Our Soldiers in France Sherwood Eddy 1917
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Nevertheless, the instinctive part of me -- that part of us which refuses to fraternize with reason, and which we call the superstitious because we cannot explain it -- would not let go the spiritualistic theory, and during all my life has never quite surrendered it to the attacks of my brain.
Sacred and Profane Love Arnold Bennett 1899
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And moreover, if we believed that it would be unconditionally hastened by our getting the franchise, we should be what I call superstitious men, believing in magic, or the production of a result by hocus-pocus.
George Eliot; a Critical Study of Her Life, Writings & Philosophy George Willis Cooke 1885
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And moreover, if we believed that it would be unconditionally hastened by our getting the franchise, we should be what I call superstitious men, believing in magic, or the production of a result by hocus-pocus.
George Eliot; A Critical Study of Her Life, Writings and Philosophy Cooke, George W 1884
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'When we spoke of this subject, after our inquiries were over, you reproached me with taking what you called the superstitious view.
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And moreover, if we believed that it would be unconditionally hastened by our getting the franchise, we should be what I call superstitious men, believing in magic, or the production of a result by hocus-pocus.
The Essays of "George Eliot" Complete George Eliot 1849
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Held in superstitious abhorrence by the rest of the crew, aliens by lack of any word of common speech, nevertheless they are good sailors and are always first to spring into any enterprise of work or peril.
CHAPTER XXXIX 2010
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Now I wait in superstitious dread for number three ....
real magic can never be made by offering up someone else's liver. deepad 2009
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