leviathan

noun

1. A vast sea monster of tremendous strength, either imaginary or real, described as the most dangerous and powerful creature in the ocean.

   “So is this greate and wyde ſee [sea] alſo, wherin are thinges crepinge innumerable, both ſmall and greate beaſtes. There go the ſhippes ouer, and there is that Leuiathan, whom thou haſt made, to take his paſtyme therin.”

   “The fomie vvaues out of the dreadfull deep, / The huge Leuiathan, dame Natures vvonder, / Making his ſport, that manie makes to vveep: […]”

   “Canſt thou dravv out Leuiathan vvith an hooke? or his tongue vvith a corde vvhich thou letteſt dovvne?”

   “[T]hat Sea beaſt / Leviathan, vvhich God of all his vvorks / Created hugeſt that ſvvim th' Ocean ſtream: […]”

2. (figuratively)A thing which is monstrously great in size, strength, etc. (especially a ship); also, a person with great power or wealth.

   “Of this laſt requeſt, the Lacquy of this great Leuiathan, promiſde he ſhould be maiſter, but he vvould not bring him to a miles end by land, (they vvere too many to meddle vvith).”

   “So can the Lord deal, and often doth, vvith the great Behemoths and Leviathans of the vvorld: […]”

   “The Duke of Bedford [Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford] is the Leviathan among all the creatures of the Crovvn. He tumbles about his unvvieldy bulk; he plays and frolicks in the ocean of the Royal bounty.”

   “The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make / Their clay creator the vain title take / Of lord of thee, and arbiter of war; […]”

   “[F]oreseeing the result of a legal contest with so potent a defendant as this leviathan of two counties, and that, under any nominal award, the whole estate of the orphans might be swallowed up on the costs of any suit that should be carried into Chancery, they prudently withdrew from all active measures of opposition, confiding the event to Lord Lonsdale [William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale]'s returning sense of justice.”

3. (figuratively)Sometimes in the form Leviathan: based on the writings of Thomas Hobbes, the political state, especially a domineering and totalitarian one.

   “Holonym: the System”

   “[T]he Multitude ſo united in one Perſon, is called a Common-vvealth, in latine Civitas. This is the generation of that great Leviathan, or rather (to ſpeake more reverently) of that Mortall God, to vvhich vvee ovve under the Immortall God, our peace and defence.”

   “[I]f a Chriſtian, vvho has the view of Happineſs and Miſery in another Life, be asked vvhy a Man muſt keep his VVord, he vvill give this as a Reaſon: Becauſe God, vvho has the Povver of eternal Life and Death, requires it of us. But if an Hobbiſt [a follower of the doctrines of Thomas Hobbes] be asked vvhy; he vvill anſvver, Becauſe the Publick requires it, and the Leviathan vvill puniſh you, if you do not.”

   “The fact is that [Thomas] Hobbes is interested in neither, but concerned exclusively with the political structure itself, and he depicts the features of man according to the needs of the Leviathan.”

4. (figuratively, obsolete)Synonym of Satan (“the supreme evil spirit in the Abrahamic religions, who tempts humanity into sin; the Devil”).

   “[S]eu'n times thrice more glorious the name, / By vvhich thrice povverfull vvee coniure the ſame: / VVhich but repeated doth that Dragon feare, / That olde Leuyathan vvhoſe iavves Lord teare. / […] / Then glorious Captaine, our chiefe God and man, / Breake thou the Iavves of old Leuiathan.”

5. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of leviathan.

   “So is this greate and wyde ſee [sea] alſo, wherin are thinges crepinge innumerable, both ſmall and greate beaſtes. There go the ſhippes ouer, and there is that Leuiathan, whom thou haſt made, to take his paſtyme therin.”

   “The fomie vvaues out of the dreadfull deep, / The huge Leuiathan, dame Natures vvonder, / Making his ſport, that manie makes to vveep: […]”

   “[S]eu'n times thrice more glorious the name, / By vvhich thrice povverfull vvee coniure the ſame: / VVhich but repeated doth that Dragon feare, / That olde Leuyathan vvhoſe iavves Lord teare. / […] / Then glorious Captaine, our chiefe God and man, / Breake thou the Iavves of old Leuiathan.”

   “Of this laſt requeſt, the Lacquy of this great Leuiathan, promiſde he ſhould be maiſter, but he vvould not bring him to a miles end by land, (they vvere too many to meddle vvith).”

adj

1. (not-comparable)Very large; enormous, gargantuan.

   “Her virtuous, pale-blue, saucerlike eyes flooded with leviathan tears on unexpected occasions and made Yossarian mad.”