a. and adv. literary. Also 6–9 wonderous, 6 wond(e)rouse, wo(u)nderus, woundrous, 6–7 woonderous, 7–9 wond’rous. [Alteration of WONDERS a. by substitution of suffix -OUS, after marvelous.] Wonderful.
a. 1500. Chaucer’s Dreme, 1898. The sede wex grene, And on the dry herse gan spring Which me thought a wondrous thing.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., iv. (1555), C iiij. The wonderous serpente Of the seuen metals, made by enchauntment.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. cxix. 18. & so shal I spie out wonderous thinges in thy lawe.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. viii. 5. A faire young man, Of wondrous beautie.
a. 1656. Hales, Gold. Rem. (1673), 7. The Grecians, till barbarism began to steal in upon them, were men of wonderous subtlety of wit.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 483. Some of Serpent kinde Wondrous in length and corpulence.
1709. Watts, Hymn. When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory dy’d.
1781. Cowper, Hope, 155. Hope … has the wondrous virtue to educe From emptiness itself a real use.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, viii. For hours, and hours, this wondrous white woman poured forth her speech.
1864. Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., xix. (1875), 357. The German mind, just beginning to put forth the blossoms of its wondrous literature.
B. adv. = next. arch.
a. 1557. Mrs. M. Basset, trans. More’s Treat. Passion, M.’s Wks. 1391/2. An vrgent and woonderous necessarye cause.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., V. 229. We found this auncient Well so wondrous deepe, that scarcely all our ropes could sinke our bucket in the water.
1678. Hobbes, Decam., vii. 77. As he made some Bodies wondrous great, so he made others wondrous little.
1740. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. xxiii. 35. They tell me she is grown wondrous pretty.
1781. Cowper, Anti-Thelyphth., 38. Some she would teach (for she was wondrous wise).
1843. G. P. R. James, Forest Days, vi. This horse eats so wondrous slow.
1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, II. 428. Lady, thou art wondrous fair.
