PICKWICKIAN


Meaning of PICKWICKIAN in English

(ˈ)pik|wikēən adjective

Usage: usually capitalized

Etymology: Samuel Pickwick, benevolent and simple-minded character in the novel Pickwick Papers (1836-37) by Charles Dickens died 1870 English novelist + English -an

1. : marked by simplicity and generosity of character or by an appearance and manner suggesting these qualities

struck one as an almost Pickwickian old gentleman — Louis Auchincloss

welcomed by a Pickwickian headmaster, a jolly, rotund man — Norris Houghton

2.

[so called from the peculiar sense given to common words by Mr. Blotton and Mr. Pickwick, characters in the novel Pickwick Papers ]

: intended or taken in a sense other than the obvious or literal one : specially or whimsically limited or distorted in intended meaning

injustice … is merely a Pickwickian expression for what human beings do not like — Nation

evidently England is starving to death, if at all, only in a strictly Pickwickian sense — Economist

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.