hieroglyphics

Noun

hieroglyphic (plural hieroglyphics)

1. (in plural) A writing system of ancient Egypt, Minoans, Maya and other civilizations, using pictorial symbols to represent individual sounds, often as a rebus.
2. Any symbol used in this system; a hieroglyph.
   • I must say, that, at the coronation, there was little vestige left as possible "of the charms that pleased a king." "She looked," Lady Mary Wortley said, "like an Egyptian mummy, wrought with hieroglyphics of gold."1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Gaieties and Absurdities. Lady Marchmont to Sir Jasper Meredith.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC...
3. (broadly) Undecipherable handwriting or secret symbol.
   • Above all, the 48-page timetables of the new service, which have been distributed free at every station in the scheme, are a model to the rest of B.R. For the first time on British Railways, so far as we are aware, a substantial timetable has been produced, not only without a single footnote but...1960 December, “The Glasgow Suburban Electrification is opened”, in Trains Illustrated, page 714

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