a. [f. LOFT sb. (in on loft, aloft) + -Y1
The word occurs first in figurative applications, and even when literal has always had an emotional or rhetorical character.]
1. Extending to a great height in the air; of imposing altitude, towering.
Said of mountains, trees, buildings, rooms; not of persons, though lofty stature is a common phrase.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. ix. 13. Forwearied with my sportes, I did alight From loftie steed.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 1167. The Barke pild from the loftie pine, His leaues will wither, and his sap decay.
1611. Bible, Isa. lvii. 7. Vpon a loftie and high mountaine hast thou set thy bed.
1646. Crashaw, Assumpt. Our Lady, 31. Each loftyest tree Bowes low’st his leauy top, to look for thee.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 508. The baptistery … is a large and lofty octangular structure.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 146. The plains are extensive; and the mountains remarkably lofty.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, II. 268. Antenor’s valiant son Of loftiest stature.
1823. Rutter, Fonthill, 19. The loftiest apartment which domestic architecture can present, probably, in the world!
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. 21. The lofty and precipitous rock … on which stood the citadel of Corinth.
1884. Pae, Eustace, 6. Fading away into the loftier Highland Mountains.
† b. Lofty tricks: acrobatic feats, tumbling. Obs.
[1567. Turberv., Ovid’s Epist., P iiij b. Then did my wanton tricks and lofty mounting, more … delight thy minde.]
1603. Florio, Montaigne, I. xxv. (1613), 71. I would faine have … those two excellent dauncers of our time, with all their nimblenesse, teach any man to doe their loftie tricks.
1622. B. Jonson, Masque of Augurs, Wks. (Rtldg.), 631/1. Marry, for lofty tricks, or dancing on the ropes, he will not undertake, it is our of their element, he says.
c. Of flight: Soaring to a great height. Of the brow: Imposingly high.
1738. Wesley, Psalms CXLVII. ii. Ye Birds of lofty Wing, On high his Praises bear.
1798. Landor, Gebir, II. 154. The kingly brow, arched lofty for command.
2. In figurative and immaterial applications. a. Haughty, overweening, proud. † Const. of.
c. 1485. Digby Myst., Mary Magd., 944. Whan I loke on þis lady, I am lofty as the lyon.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, III. (1577), R j a. Bearing themselues lofty of their beautye and worthynesse.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. CXXXI. A lofty hart, a lifted eye Lord thou dost know I never bare.
1611. Bible, Isa. ii. 12. The day of the Lord of hostes shall bee vpon euery one that is proud and loftie.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., 516. Cow’ring and Quaking at a Conq’ror’s Sword, But Lofty to a Lawful Prince Restor’d.
1712–3. Pope, Guardian, No. 4, ¶ 2. A lofty gentleman, whose air and gait discovered when he had published a new book.
1787. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, 21 Aug. He appeared very lofty, and highly affronted.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. App. 601. Several particulars are worked in with a lofty contempt for chronology.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, viii. 123. Inclined to treat everybody … with a sort of lofty good humour.
absol. 1597. J. Payne, Royal Exch., 28. Sum tymes the prowde and loftie do walke there to be sene in there heyght and braverie.
1611. Bible, Isa. v. 15. The eyes of the loftie shall be humbled.
b. Exalted in dignity, rank, character or quality. Of expectations, aims, desires: Directed to high objects.
[14[?]. see LOFT a.]
1548. Elyot, Dict., Excelsus, hyghe or great, lofty, haute, noble.
1586. Day, Eng. Secretary (1625), 129. Their estate (being peraduenture loftie, and of power to command or sway ouer vs) will not admit by writting to intermeddle with their actions [etc.].
1611. Bible, Isa. lvii. 15. Thus saith the High and loftie One that inhabiteth eternitie.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xii. I. 246. These lofty expectations were, however, soon disappointed.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iv. I. 501. The courage of the survivor was sustained by an enthusiasm as lofty as any that is recorded in martyrology.
1857. Buckle, Civiliz., I. xi. 646. How can they, constantly occupied with their lofty pursuits have leisure for such inferior matters?
1874. Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, viii. 257. The moral teaching of Euripides, of Socrates, and of the more lofty Sophists, was making sure and silent progress.
1877. E. R. Conder, Bas. Faith, v. 203. It is man’s nobility, not his defect, that the most lofty and commanding part of him is his moral nature.
1878. E. Jenkins, Haverholme, 61. Heir to one of the loftiest of the English peerages.
c. Of compositions or utterances (hence occas. of writers or speakers): Elevated in style or sentiment; sublime, grandiose.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Effero, Elatis verbis intensa oratio, a lofty and highe stile.
1577. J. Knewstub, Confutation (1579), ** 5 b. They set forth their trifling and halfepeny doctrines with loftie and high phrases of speech.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., Verses to Ld. Buckhurst. In loftie numbers and heroicke stile.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., 194. They may proceed … from the lowest kind of verse in the Eclogues, to something a loftier in the Georgics.
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 11. He knew Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.
1640. Wilkins, New Planet (1707), I. 148. His Book [Job] is more especially remarkable for lofty Expressions.
1692. Atterb., On Ps. l. 14, Serm. 1726, I. 32. Therefore is the hymn it self so lofty and moving.
1704. Pope, Windsor For., 280. The shades where … lofty Denham sung.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 88. About which [astronomy] I am willing to speak in your lofty strain.
d. Of majestic sound.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., V. ii. 98. Sound all the lofty Instruments of Warre.
1814. Wordsw., White Doe Ryl., I. 38. With one consent the people rejoice Filling the church with a lofty voice.
† 3. Of the wind, the sea: = HIGH 10. Obs.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy. (1810), III. 236. It is very hard to find it when the wind is lofty.
1745. P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 146. Such a lofty and dangerous Sea as I have seldom seen.
4. dial. ‘Massive, superior’ (Eng. Dial. Dict., referring to Sleigh, Derbysh. Gloss., 1865). † Of sheep: Stout, in good condition.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees Soc.), 2. Yett is it a custome with many … to clowte their shearinges to hinder them from tuppinge, that by this meanes they may make them more lofty sheepe.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 324. Lofty Tin, in contradistinction to Floran Tin, for Lofty Tin is richer, massive, and rougher.
5. Comb. a. In syntactical combs. with pres. pples., as lofty-looking, -sounding; b. in parasynthetic derivatives, as lofty-headed, -humo(u)red, -lineaged, -minded, -necked, -paced, -peaked, -plumed, -roofed, -windowed. Also † lofty-like adv., as if placed on high.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 290. That with their *loftie-headed tops reach to the cloudy skie.
1611. Cotgr., Madamoiselle de cinquante pour cent,… may be applyed to the *loftie-humored wife of an extorting Vsurer.
1604. S. Grahame, Pass. Spark, E 4. Man climbes aboue the course of such conceate, That *loftie-like, they loath to look below.
1871. Browning, Balaust., Wks. 1896, I. 655/1. Both … *lofty-lineaged, each of us Born of the best.
1755. Shebbeare, Lydia (1769), I. 283. His great Creator … beholds with equal favour the creeping ant, and *lofty-looking Briton.
1611. Cotgr., Orgueilleux,… hautie, *loftie-minded.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, I. 93, note. That lofty-minded man.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 125. The Colt, that for a Stallion is design’d … *loftyneck’d, Sharp headed, Barrel belly’d, broadly back’d.
1796. Coleridge, Lett. (1895), 210. He does not possess opulence of imaginative *lofty-paced harmony.
1844. J. Tomlin, Mission. Jrnls., 272. A *lofty-peaked mountain.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., V. iii. 25. Now the time is come, That France must vale her *lofty-plumed Crest.
1848. B. D. Walsh, Aristoph., Clouds, I. iv. *Lofty-roofed fanes, and marble-built portals.
1777. Potter, Æschylus, Prometheus chain’d, 23. Woes like these Are earnings of the *lofty-sounding tongue.
1777. T. Warton, Poems, 63. Along the *lofty-window’d hall The storied tapestry was hung.
