SATURNINE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Saturnine

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adjective

Saturnine adj.

Born under, or influenced by, the planet Saturn.

Heavy; grave; gloomy; dull; the opposite of mercurial; as, a saturnine person or temper.

(Old Chem.) Of or pertaining to lead; characterized by, or resembling, lead, which was formerly called Saturn. (Archaic)

Saturnine colic (Med.), lead colic.

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Etymology of 'Saturnine'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Saturnine" Quotes from Famous Books

... play did not fascinate me. It was the middle of some jocular after piece; roars of laughter resounded round me. I could detect nothing to laugh at, and sending my keen eyes into every corner, I perceived at last, in the uppermost tier, one face as saturnine as my own.—Eureka! It was the Captain's! "Why should he go to a play if he enjoys it so little?" thought I; "better have spent a shilling on a cab, ...

— The Caxtons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... the Chief, dark and saturnine to look at, with his straight black hair gleaming in the light. He was a Mohawk, and he and his tribe had taken to steel construction work a long time back. They were good. There were not many big construction jobs on which the Chief's tribesmen were not to be ...

— Space Platform • Murray Leinster

... came the faint thud of hoofs as two riders came warily up to the water-hole. One dismounted and stooped over Winthrop. The other sat his horse, silent, vigilant, saturnine. ...

— Overland Red - A Romance of the Moonstone Canon Trail • Henry Herbert Knibbs

... were, from his cradle, he seemed completely transformed by his Spanish tuition, for he was educated and not sacrificed by Philip. When he returned to the Netherlands, after a twenty years' residence in Spain, it was difficult to detect in his gloomy brow, saturnine character, and Jesuistical habits, a trace of the generous spirit which characterized that race of heroes, the ...

— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... endure heavy punishment, even in the case of temporary failure, were consistent characteristics of his generalship. The Vaalkranz operations are particularly difficult to defend from the charge of having been needlessly slow and half-hearted. This 'saturnine fighter,' as he had been called, proved to be exceedingly sensitive about the lives of his men—an admirable quality in itself, but there are occasions when to spare them to-day is to needlessly imperil them tomorrow. The victory was his, and yet in the very moment ...

— The Great Boer War • Arthur Conan Doyle

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