Herculean
[,hə:kju'li:ən;hə'ku:liən]
Definition
(adj.) extremely difficult; requiring the strength of a Hercules; 'a herculean task' .
(adj.) displaying superhuman strength or power; 'herculean exertions' .
Checked by Clive--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Requiring the strength of Hercules; hence, very great, difficult, or dangerous; as, an Herculean task.
(a.) Having extraordinary strength or size; as, Herculean limbs.
Checker: Vivian
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Strong, mighty, powerful, puissant, vigorous, sturdy, athletic, brawny, muscular, sinewy, stalwart, able-bodied.[2]. Difficult, toilsome, troublesome, laborious, operose, very hard.[3]. Large, great, gigantic, strapping, huge, colossal, Cyclopean.
Typist: Pansy
Synonyms and Antonyms
[See GIGANTIC]
Edited by Daisy
Definition
adj. of or pertaining to Hercules: extremely difficult or dangerous as the twelve labours of the Greek hero Hercules: of extraordinary strength and size.—Hercules beetle a gigantic Brazilian lamellicorn beetle 6 in. long with a long horn on the head of the male and a smaller one on the thorax; Hercules' choice toil and duty chosen in preference to ease and pleasure—from a famous story in Xenophon's Memorabilia; Hercules club a stick of great size and weight; Pillars of Hercules the name given by the ancients to two rocks flanking the entrance to the Mediterranean at the Strait of Gibraltar.
Checker: Rene
Examples
- Let them hope for perpetual peace and harmony with that enemy, whose manhood, however mistaken the cause, drew forth such herculean deeds of valor. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Or suppose a better sort of man who is attracted towards philosophy, will they not make Herculean efforts to spoil and corrupt him? Plato. The Republic.
- Bar Comas was stone dead, and only the most herculean efforts on the part of Dak Kova's females saved him from the fate he deserved. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- His cheeks, late vermilion glow, were changed to the ashy paleness of death; his Herculean strength to the feebleness of infancy. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- This, however, was in itself a Herculean task. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The completion of this herculean task marked an epoch in the history of the world. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- She plunged her arm, bare and herculean, behind the aforementioned sofa, and holding aloft a section of wood, called out in a mood of discovery: 'Is that it? Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- However, being afterwards afflicted with an attack of inflammation in my chest, I ventured to send for this Herculean Beauty! Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
Checker: Rene