a. [f. Achille-s prop. name of a Grecian hero + -AN.] Resembling Achilles; invulnerable, invincible.

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1637.  Gillespie, Eng. Popish Cer., C 3. We are not well advised to enter into combate with such Achillean strength.

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a. 1773.  J. Cunningham, Anacreon, Ode XIV. Wks. 1797, 198.

        But an Achillean spear
Would be ineffectual here,
While the poison’d arrows fly
Hot as lightning from the sky.

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1849.  W. Fitzgerald, trans. Whitaker, Disputation, 276. How well this reason deserves to be considered Achillean, will appear hereafter.

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