sublimes

Noun

sublime (countable and uncountable, plural sublimes)

1. (archaic) Something which is sublime; a sublimity.
   • Car[los]. VVhat is your opinion of the Play?
     Yo[ung] Mag[got]. […] There are a great many ſublimes that are very Poetical.1678 March 31 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Tho[mas] Shadwell, A True Widow. A Comedy, […], London: […] Benjamin Tooke, […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act I, page 6
2. (archaic) In the form the sublime of: the highest degree; the acme, the height.
   • No solemn, antique gentleman of rhyme,
     Who having angled all his life for fame,
     And getting but a nibble at a time,
     Still fussily keeps fishing on, the same
     Small "Triton of the minnows," the sublime
     Of mediocrity, the furious tame, […]1817 (date written), [Lord Byron], “Stanza LXX”, in Beppo, a Venetian Story, London: John Murray, […], published 1818, →OCLC, page 36
3. An aspect of art or nature which causes awe or deep respect due to its beauty or magnificence; hence, the great beauty or magnificence of a place, a thing, etc.
   • [T]he vvhole capacity of the eye, vibrating in all its parts muſt approach near to the nature of vvhat cauſes pain, and conſequently muſt produce an idea of the ſublime. Or if vve take it, that one point only of an object is diſtinguiſhable at oince; the matter vvill amount nearly to the ſame...1756 (date written), [Edmund Burke], “Sect. XI. Why Visual Objects of Great Dimensions are Sublime.”, in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, London: […]...
4. A style of language or writing which expresses opinions in a grand way.
   • And, after, feigning pique at what she call'd
     The raillery, or grotesque, or false sublime—
     Like one that wishes at a dance to change
     The music—clapt her hands and cried for war,
     Or some grand fight to kill and make an end: […]1850, Alfred Tennyson, “Part IV”, in The Princess: A Medley, 3rd edition, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 100
5. That which is intellectually, morally, or spiritually superior in human life or human nature.
   • The ſublime and the ridiculous are often ſo nearly related, that it is difficult to claſs them ſeparately. One ſtep above the ſublime, makes the ridiculous; and one ſtep above the ridiculous, makes the ſublime again.1795, Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason. Part the Second. Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology, London: […] H. D. Symonds, […], →OCLC, page 22
6. (archaic, uncountable) The quality or state of being sublime; sublimeness, sublimity.
   • [W]hatever VVord or Sentence is Printed in a different Character, ſhall be judged to contain ſomething extraordinary either of VVit or Sublime.1704, [Jonathan Swift], “The Preface”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC

See all 35 meanings of sublime