a. [ad. L. adamantin-us a. Gr. ἀδαμάντιν-ος adj. of material, f. ἀδάμας; see ADAMANT.]
1. Made of, or having the qualities of adamant; incapable of being broken, dissolved or penetrated; immovable, impregnable.
1382. Wyclif, Jer. xvii. 1. The synne of Juda writen is with an irene pointel, in an adamantyne nail.
1590. Greene, Mourn. Garm. (1616), 20. That set a fire with piercing flames euen hearts adamantine.
1599. Marston, Sco. Vill., II. viii. 211. Vnlesse the Destin’s adamantine band Should tye my teeth, I cannot chuse but bite.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 39. To the end it might be a State Adamantine … that is, invincible.
1662. H. More, Antid. agt. Ath., Pref. Gen. 26 (1712). These are the Adamantine Laws and Tyes of Religion.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 646. Three folds were brass, Three iron, three of adamantine rock.
1718. Pope, Iliad, II. 581. To count them all, demands a thousand tongues, A throat of brass, and adamantine lungs.
1727. W. Mather, Young Man’s Comp., 68. Vertue is an Adamantine Mountain, and Invincible Fortress.
1817. Coleridge, Biogr. Lit., 70. The adamantine chain of the logic.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 167. A risk which severely tried even the adamantine fortitude of Cromwell.
1865. Ruskin, Sesame, 129. The victorious truth and adamantine purity of a woman.
Adamantine Spar, an old name of CORUNDUM.
1798. Greville, Corundum, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVIII. 403. The mineral substance from the East Indies which is generally called Adamantine Spar.
1874. Westropp, Prec. Stones, 59. When first introduced, Mr. King tells us, into the European atelier, some ninety years ago, it [corundum] was known by the name of adamantine spar.
† 2. Having the qualities of the loadstone; magnetic. Obs.
1604. Dekker, Kings’ Entert. (1873), I. 269. All mens eyes were presently turned to the North … like the poynts of so many geometricall needles, through a fixed and Adamantine desire.
1641. Brathwait, Eng. Gentl., 6. The eyes … those adamantine orbes which attract affection to us.
1655. Gouge, Comm. on Hebr., xi. 15, III. 59. The world hath an adamantine force to draw mens hearts to it.
