Proper name of a hundred-handed giant of Greek mythology; sometimes used connotatively.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. ii. 30. Hee is a gowtie Briareus, many hands and no vse.
1852. Tupper, Proverb. Philos., 310. She with the might of a Briareus, is dragging down the clouds upon the mountain.
1861. Times, 11 July, 7/3. This is the most practical realization yet attained of Mr. Wren Hoskyn’s famous rotary cultivator—the sharp-clawed ‘revolving Briareus’ of his inimitable Clay Farm Chronicles.
Hence Briarean, of or relating to Briareus; hundred-handed. Also quasi-sb.
1599. Marston, Satires. Shape-changing Proteans, damn’d Briareans.
1820. Byron, Mar. Fal., I. ii. 268. Could I not shatter the Briarean sceptre Which in this hundred-handed senate rules?
1883. Proctor, Myst. Time & Space, 57. With Briarean arms science thrust back the stars into the depths of space.
