[Byz.an.tine] adj (1794) 1: of, relating to, or characteristic of the ancient city of Byzantium
2: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a style of architecture developed in the Byzantine Empire esp. in the 5th and 6th centuries featuring the dome carried on pendentives over a square and incrustation with marble veneering and with colored mosaics on grounds of gold
3: of or relating to the churches using a traditional Greek rite and subject to Eastern canon law
4. often not cap a: of, relating to, or characterized by a devious and usu. surreptitious manner of operation "a ~ power struggle" b: intricately involved: labyrinthine "rules of ~ complexity"