Ethereal

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ethereal \E*the"re*al\, a.
     1. Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the
        higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere;
        celestial; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions.
        [1913 Webster]
  


              Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger. --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy;
        tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as
        form, manner, thought, etc.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Vast chain of being, which from God began,
              Natures ethereal, human, angel, man.  --Pope.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Chem.) Pertaining to, derived from, or resembling, ether;
        as, ethereal salts.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Ethereal oil}. (Chem.) See {Essential oil}, under
        {Essential}.
  
     {Ethereal oil of wine} (Chem.), a heavy, yellow, oily liquid
        consisting essentially of etherin, etherol, and ethyl
        sulphate. It is the oily residuum left after
        etherification. Called also {heavy oil of wine}
        (distinguished from oil of wine, or [oe]nanthic ether).
  
     {Ethereal salt} (Chem.), a salt of some organic radical as a
        base; an ester.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ethereal
       adj 1: characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as
              impalpable or intangible as air; "figures light and
              aeriform come unlooked for and melt away"- Thomas
              Carlyle; "aerial fancies"; "an airy apparition";
              "physical rather than ethereal forms" [syn: {aeriform},
               {aerial}, {airy}, {aery}]
       2: of or containing or dissolved in ether; "ethereal solution"
       3: of heaven or the spirit; "celestial peace"; "ethereal
          melodies"; "the supernal happiness of a quiet death" [syn:
           {celestial}, {supernal}]
       4: characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy; "this
          smallest and most ethereal of birds"; "gossamer shading
          through his playing" [syn: {gossamer}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  229 Moby Thesaurus words for "ethereal":
     Elysian, Olympian, adulterated, aerial, aeriform, aerodynamic,
     aerostatic, aery, air-built, airish, airlike, airy, alfresco,
     altitudinous, ascending, asomatous, aspiring, astral, atmospheric,
     attenuate, attenuated, beatific, beatified, blessed, bodiless,
     boyish, breezy, bubbly, celestial, chimeric, chimerical,
     cloud-born, cloud-built, cloud-woven, colossal, cut, decarnate,
     decarnated, delicate, diaphanous, dilute, diluted, discarnate,
     disembodied, dominating, downy, dreamlike, ectoplasmic, elevated,
     eminent, empyreal, empyrean, etheric, exalted, exposed,
     extramundane, extraterrestrial, fanciful, fatuitous, fatuous,
     feathery, filmy, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, flimsy, fluffy, foamy,
     fragile, frail, from on high, frothy, fuming, fumy, gaseous,
     gasified, gasiform, gaslike, gassy, gauzy, ghostish, ghostlike,
     ghostly, ghosty, girlish, glorified, gossamer, gossamery, gracile,
     haughty, heavenly, high, high-pitched, high-reaching, high-set,
     high-up, illusory, imaginary, immaterial, impalpable, imponderable,
     imponderous, in glory, incorporate, incorporeal, insubstantial,
     intangible, lacy, leger, light, light as air, lighter than vanity,
     lofty, mephitic, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, misty, monumental,
     mounting, mousse, nonmaterial, nonphysical, occult, open-air,
     otherworldly, outtopping, overlooking, overtopping, oxyacetylene,
     oxygenous, ozonic, papery, paradisaic, paradisal, paradisiac,
     paradisic, phantasmal, phantasmic, phantom, phantomic, phantomlike,
     pneumatic, prominent, psychic, rare, rarefied, reeking, reeky,
     roomy, shadowy, slender, slenderish, slight, slight-made, slim,
     slimmish, slinky, small, smoking, smoky, soaring, souffle,
     specterlike, spectral, spiring, spiritual, spirituous, steaming,
     steamy, steep, sublime, subtile, subtle, superlative, supernal,
     supernatural, svelte, sylphlike, tenuous, thin, thin-bodied,
     thin-set, thin-spun, thinned, thinned-out, thinnish, threadlike,
     topless, toplofty, topping, towering, towery, transcendental,
     transmundane, tropospheric, uncompact, uncompressed, unearthly,
     unembodied, unextended, unfleshly, unheavy, unphysical, unreal,
     unsubstantial, unworldly, uplifted, upreared, vague, vaporing,
     vaporish, vaporlike, vaporous, vapory, volatile, wasp-waisted,
     watered, watered-down, watery, weak, weightless, willowy, windy,
     wiredrawn, wispy, wraithlike, wraithy, yeasty