Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In Swift's “Gulliver's Travels” (“Voyage to Laputa”), one of a small class of immortals or deathless persons in “Luggnagg,” born with an indicative sign in the forehead, who after fourscore live on at public expense in the imbecility of extreme age.
Etymologies
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Examples
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After a short silence, the same person told me that his friends and mine (so he thought fit to express himself) were very much pleased with the judicious remarks I had made on the great happiness and advantages of immortal life; and they were desirous to know in a particular manner, what scheme of living I should have formed to myself, if it had fallen to my lot to have been born a struldbrug.
Gulliver's Travels 1896
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If a struldbrug happen to marry one of his own kind, the marriage is dissolved of course by the courtesy of the kingdom, as soon as the younger of the two comes to be fourscore.
Gulliver's Travels 1896
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That if it had been my good fortune to come into the world a struldbrug, as soon as I could discover my own happiness by understanding the difference between life and death, I would first resolve by an arts and methods whatsoever to procure myself riches.
Gulliver's Travels 1896
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“that his friends and mine (so he thought fit to express himself) were very much pleased with the judicious remarks I had made on the great happiness and advantages of immortal life, and they were desirous to know, in a particular manner, what scheme of living I should have formed to myself, if it had fallen to my lot to have been born a struldbrug.”
Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World 1726
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"that his friends and mine (so he thought fit to express himself) were very much pleased with the judicious remarks I had made on the great happiness and advantages of immortal life, and they were desirous to know, in a particular manner, what scheme of living I should have formed to myself, if it had fallen to my lot to have been born a struldbrug."
Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1706
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"that his friends and mine (so he thought fit to express himself) were very much pleased with the judicious remarks I had made on the great happiness and advantages of immortal life, and they were desirous to know, in a particular manner, what scheme of living I should have formed to myself, if it had fallen to my lot to have been born a struldbrug."
Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1706
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"that his friends and mine (so he thought fit to express himself) were very much pleased with the judicious remarks I had made on the great happiness and advantages of immortal life, and they were desirous to know, in a particular manner, what scheme of living I should have formed to myself, if it had fallen to my lot to have been born a struldbrug."
Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1706
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“That, if it had been my good fortune to come into the world a struldbrug, as soon as I could discover my own happiness, by understanding the difference between life and death, I would first resolve, by all arts and methods, whatsoever, to procure myself riches.
Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World 1726
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“If a struldbrug happen to marry one of his own kind, the marriage is dissolved of course, by the courtesy of the kingdom, as soon as the younger of the two comes to be fourscore; for the law thinks it a reasonable indulgence, that those who are condemned, without any fault of their own, to a perpetual continuance in the world, should not have their misery doubled by the load of a wife.
Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World 1726
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"If a struldbrug happen to marry one of his own kind, the marriage is dissolved of course, by the courtesy of the kingdom, as soon as the younger of the two comes to be fourscore; for the law thinks it
Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1706
chained_bear commented on the word struldbrug
In Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_, given as the native appellation of ‘the immortals’ in the kingdom of Luggnagg, who were incapable of dying, but after the age of eighty continued to exist in a state of miserable decrepitude, regarded as legally dead, and receiving a small pittance from the state. Hence in allusive uses.
February 9, 2007