labyrinth
See also: Labyrinth
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin labyrinthus, from Ancient Greek λαβύρινθος (labúrinthos, “maze”).
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈlæb.(ə)ɹ.ɪnθ/, /ˈlæb.ɪ.ɹɪnθ/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈlæb.ɚ.ɪnθ/, /ˈlæb.ɹɪnθ/
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
labyrinth (plural labyrinths)
- (Greek mythology) A maze-like structure built by Daedalus in Knossos, containing the Minotaur.
- A maze, especially underground or covered.
- Part of the inner ear.
- (figuratively) Anything complicated and confusing, like a maze.
- 2014 August 23, Neil Hegarty, “Hidden City: Adventures and Explorations in Dublin by Karl Whitney, review: 'a necessary corrective' [print version: Re-Joycing in Dublin, p. R25]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)[1]:
- Whitney is absorbed especially by Dublin's unglamorous interstitial zones: the new housing estates and labyrinths of roads, watercourses and railways where the city peters into its commuter belt.
- Any of various satyrine butterflies of the genus Lua error in Module:taxlink at line 68: Parameter "ver" is not used by this template..
Derived terms
Translations
maze
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part of inner ear
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anything complicated or confusing
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Verb
labyrinth (third-person singular simple present labyrinths, present participle labyrinthing, simple past and past participle labyrinthed)
- To enclose in a labyrinth, or as though in a labyrinth.
- To arrange in the form of a labyrinth.
- 1898, Missionary Review of the World - Volume 21, page 178:
- It is said to have been labyrinthed by secret exits and cunning contrivances to facilitate the escape of fugitives from the law.
- 1963, Water & Sewage Works - Volume 110, page 43:
- By labyrinthing, close axial running clearances can be increased without reducing efficiency.
- 1998, Peter E. Stott, Giuseppe Gorini, Paolo Prandoni, Diagnostics for Experimental Thermonuclear Fusion Reactors:
- In the ports the transmission path is often labyrinthed through shielding but the peculiar requirement of straight beams has been considered.
- 2011, Peter Capper, James Garland, Mercury Cadmium Telluride: Growth, Properties and Applications:
- The element illustrated has been 'labyrinthed' to improve its performance.
- To twist and wind, following a labyrinthine path.
- 1917, Harry Alverson Franck, Vagabonding Down the Andes, page 313:
- We labyrinthed through it, meeting scores of panty-clad and moccasined Indians and barefoot women and girls toiling marketward under atrocious burdens; for the day was Sunday.
- 2000, James Cook, Counter-Clockwise, page 90:
- Hands clasped together, Linda and Ron walked through the huge doorway leading to the hall that would labyrinth it's way to the parking lot.
- 2017, Mahvesh Murad, Jared Shurin, Neil Gaiman, The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories:
- I'm far from home, labyrinthing through unfamiliar alleys, before I find the right house.
- To render lost and confused, as if in a labyrinth.
- 1886, Pliny A. Durant, History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, page 52:
- They arrive at their different destinations long before day, and make their attack about day-break, and seldom fail to kill or make prisoners of the whole family, as the people know nothing of the matter until they are thus labyrinthed.
- 1951, New Mexico Quarterly - Volumes 21-22:
- He favored, he said, "a kind of half-sleep where I labyrinthed myself."
- 1995, Patrick Waddington, Theirs but to do and die, page 148:
- Above all, he flatters the men by emphasising their numerical victory: a British regiment may have turned into a troop, but it left behind it 'labyrinthed legions' of dead Russians.
References
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “labyrinth”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Greek mythology
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- en:Anatomy
- en:Satyrine butterflies