SPARTAN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Spartan

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/spˈɑrtən/ Listen

Spartan

adjective

Of or relating to or characteristic of Sparta or its people.

Resolute in the face of pain or danger or adversity.

Unsparing and uncompromising in discipline or judgment. Synonym: severe. "A hefty six-footer with a rather severe mien" , "A strict disciplinarian" , "A Spartan upbringing"

Practicing great self-denial. Synonyms: ascetic, ascetical, austere. "A desert nomad's austere life" , "A spartan diet" , "A spartan existence"

noun

A resident of Sparta.

See more definitions of Spartan...

See images of 'Spartan'

Etymology of 'Spartan'

Share |

"Spartan" Quotes from Famous Books

... this religious sanction of ancestor-worship affect the social "mores" that, as is shown so clearly in Spartan history, no man could shirk his duty of marriage and of parenthood without social opprobrium. The well-known anecdote related by Plutarch of the youth who, educated rigorously to show respect to the aged fathers, ...

— The Family and it's Members • Anna Garlin Spencer

... social jumble of fancy fairs in aid of the new church organ; they had a bowing acquaintance—that is, Mrs. Bell, had. Miss Kimpsey's part of it was responsive, and she always gave a thought to her boots and her gloves when she met Mrs. Bell. It was not that the Spartan social circle which Mrs. Bell adorned had any vulgar prejudice against the fact that Miss Kimpsey earned her own living—more than one of its ornaments had done the same thing—and Miss Kimpsey's relations were all "in grain" and obviously respectable. ...

— A Daughter of To-Day • Sara Jeannette Duncan (aka Mrs. Everard Cotes)

... The Spartan boy was taught that he must become very strong and self-reliant. His schoolroom was very plain and bare. He was never allowed to go home to visit. He had to wear, in both summer and winter, the same plain, loose clothing. He slept out of doors in the summer-time, under the trees. In the wintertime ...

— A Child's Story Garden • Compiled by Elizabeth Heber

... duties—these are quietly persistent factors in the gradual soothing of the nerves. Many a timid passenger, after lying awake through a night of terror, has gone to sleep when the watch began to swab the deck overhead. Not even a Spartan sailor would begin to wash woodwork ...

— The Captain of the Kansas • Louis Tracy

... so highly developed a Kultur nation as the German Empire puts itself in a position where it is almost impossible to acquire any considerable degree of culture. Culture is the enemy of such a state—it must remain in the Spartan or Macedonian stage. Rome began to decline as soon as Hellenistic culture got the ascendency over the old Latin Kultur. Kultur, in short, galvanizes; culture liberates. A survey of modern Germany hardly warrants a desire for ...

— The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol. 1, January 9, 1915 - What Americans Say to Europe • Various

More quotes...