a.; also 6 aungellical, 6–7 angelycall, etc. [f. ANGELIC + -AL 1: see -ICAL.]
1. Of or pertaining to angels; of angel kind. arch.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., xxiii. ii. Yet have they nature whych is angelycall.
1577. St. Aug. Manuell. This aungellical ditie: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hostes.
1699. Evelyn, Acetaria (1729), 146. Our Paradisian Bard introduces Eve dressing of a Sallet for her Angelical Guest.
1718. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The Angelical Salutation is called by the Romanists Ave Maria.
a. 1834. Coleridge, Notes Theol. & Pol., 364. The mighty kingdoms angelical … sounding forth their blessedness.
2. Angel-like, resembling an angel; hence, of superhuman nature, intelligence, holiness, disposition, beauty, etc.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 569. We are by baptisme purged into an Angelicall life.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., III. ii. 75. Beautifull Tyrant, fiend Angelicall: Rauenous Doue-feather’d Rauen.
1635. A. Stafford, Fem. Glory (1869), 31. The Angellicall Innocency of God’s Owne Mother.
a. 1687. Petty, Pol. Arith., i. (1691), 16. Such Angelical Wits and Judgments, as some attribute to the Hollanders.
1805. Wordsworth, Prel., III. (1850), 67. A boy, no better, with his rosy cheeks Angelical.
1847. J. Wilson, Chr. North (1857), II. 20. Angelical indeed was his temper, purified, like gold in fire, by suffering.
3. An attribute of the Carthusians, and of Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual as an angel.
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (1878), 286. The very Turk would have reverenced … the angelical Carthusians.
1560. J. Daus, Sleidane’s Comm., 3 b. [Aquinas] commonly called thangelical doctor, for the subtiltie of his witte.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857), I. 378. The Angelical Doctor had systematized it.
4. Of or pertaining to a divine messenger, or pastor. Cf. ANGEL 2 and 3. rare.
1678. in Heath, Grocers’ Comp. (1869), 524. Religion in a sable robe … bearing a buckler in one hand … in the other hand a banner on an angelical staff.
1864. Burton, Scot. Abr., II. i. 96. The angelical office of godly pastors.
5. Angelical stone: a fancy of the alchemists.
1652. Ashmole, Theat. Chem. Brit., Prol. 8. Lastly, as touching the Angelicall Stone, it is so subtill … that it can neither be seene, felt, or weighed.
