Pontifical

4 definitions found

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

  Pontifical \Pon*tif"ic*al\, n. [F.]
     1. A book containing the offices, or formulas, used by a
        pontiff. --South.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. pl. The dress and ornaments of a pontiff. "Dressed in full


        pontificals." --Sir W. Scott.
        [1913 Webster]

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

  Pontifical \Pon*tif"ic*al\, a. [L. pontificalis: cf. F.
     pontifical. See {Pontiff}.]
     1. Of or pertaining to a pontiff, or high priest; as,
        pontifical authority; hence, belonging to the pope; papal.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Of or pertaining to the building of bridges. [R.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Now had they brought the work by wondrous art
              Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock
              Over the vexed abyss.                 --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  pontifical
       adj 1: proceeding from or ordered by or subject to a pope or the
              papacy regarded as the successor of the Apostles;
              "papal dispensation" [syn: {papal}, {apostolic}, {apostolical}]
       2: denoting or governed by or relating to a bishop or bishops
          [syn: {episcopal}]
       3: puffed up with vanity; "a grandiloquent and boastful
          manner"; "overblown oratory"; "a pompous speech";
          "pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical hooey"-
          Newsweek [syn: {grandiloquent}, {overblown}, {pompous}, {portentous}]

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

  41 Moby Thesaurus words for "pontifical":
     apostolic, arrogant, bigoted, bloated, bombastic, conceited,
     doctrinaire, doctrinarian, dogmatic, dogmatizing, flatulent,
     formal, gassy, grandiloquent, important, inflated, magisterial,
     opinionated, opinionative, opinioned, oracular, papal, papish,
     papist, papistic, peremptory, pompous, popish, positive,
     positivistic, pronunciative, puffy, self-important,
     self-opinionated, self-opinioned, solemn, stilted, stuffy, swollen,
     tumid, turgid