adamantine

adj

1. Synonym of adamant.

   “[A]t laſt appeer / Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid Roof, / And thrice threefold the Gates; three folds vvere Braſs, / Three iron, three of Adamantine Rock, / Impenitrable, impal'd vvith circling fire, / Yet unconsum'd.”

2. (figuratively)Synonym of adamant.

   “adamantine bonds    adamantine chains”

   “Vnleſſe the Deſtin's adamantine band / Should tye my teeth, I cannot chuſe but bite, […]”

   “Hovv impetrable hee vvas in mollyfying the adamantineſt tiranny of mankinde, […]”

   “[T]o a vviſe man there can happen no iniury or offence at all, to moleſt the felicity of his minde, vvhich (in the Stoicks opinion) ought to bee imperturbable, and his heart adamantine.”

   “[I]t vvas thought the beſt pollicie, and ſafeſt for the State, That the Romane Empire ſhould be kept, & held vvithin bounds, to vvit, the Ocean, the rivers Iſter and Euphrates limits ſet by nature, to the end it might be a State Adamantine, (for ſo Auguſtus himſelfe ſpeaketh in Iulian,) that is, invincible; […]”

3. (figuratively)Synonym of adamant.

   “For two hours they stand; [François Claude Amour, marquis de] Bouillé's sword glittering in his hand, adamantine resolution clouding his brows; […]”

   “He [William III of England] was proved by every test; […] by the imminent and constant risk of assassination, a risk which has shaken very strong nerves, a risk which severely tried even the adamantine fortitude of [Oliver] Cromwell.”

   “In Measure for Measure [by William Shakespeare], the injustice of the judges, and the corrupt cowardice of the brother, are opposed to the victorious truth and adamantine purity of a woman.”

4. (figuratively)Synonym of adamant.

   “I thought this last information would soften the young man, but he was adamantine. He informed me that it was against all bank rules for a woman to draw from her husband's deposit without his order.”

5. (figuratively, obsolete)Synonym of adamant.

   “Embravvne your ſoft-skind encloſure vvith Adamantine duſt, that it may dravve nothing but ſteele vnto it.”

   “All mens eyes vvere preſently turnd to the North, ſtanding euen ſtone-ſtill in their Circles, like the poynts of ſo many Geometricall needles, through a fixed & Adamantine deſire to behold this 45. yeares vvonder novv brought forth by Tyme: […]”

   “Hail, adamantine Steel! magnetic Lord! / King of the provv, the plovvſhare, and the ſvvord! / True to the pole, by thee the pilot guides / His ſteady helm amid the ſtruggling tides, […]”

6. Like diamond in lustre; bright, lustrous, shiny; also, of a lustre: like that of a mineral with a high refractive index such as diamond.

   “Raspite, a new dimorphous form of lead tungstate, is found on some of the stolzite specimens as brownish or yellow monoclinic crystals with a strong adamantine lustre.”

noun

1. (also, attributive, uncountable)Synonym of adamantium (“a fictional metal which is indestructible or nearly so”).