[ad. L. lūcubrātiōn-em, n. of action f. lūcubrāre to LUCUBRATE.]
1. The action or occupation of lucubrating; nocturnal study or meditation; study in general; an instance of this.
1595. Bell, Surv. Popery, Ep. Ded. Who haue spared no labour, no watchinges, no lucubrations, to atchieue exact knowledge in the holie scriptures.
1649. Evelyn, Liberty & Servitude, iv. Misc. Writ. (1805), 25. The very lamp of earth wherewithall he used to illuminate his lucubrations, was sold for three thousand drachmas.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Wks. (1687), 63. Life is, since he is gone, But a Nocturnal Lucubration.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 140, ¶ 1. That state of Mind which is proper for Lucubration.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., iii. I. 79. The virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was … the well-earned harvest of … many a midnight lucubration.
1817. Coleridge, Lay Serm., 403. If Plato himself were to return and renew his sublime lucubrations.
1847. trans. Feuchtersleben’s Psychical Med., 296. Immoderate lucubration with overstrained mental exertion.
1875. Cusin, trans. F. Godet’s Luke, II. 40. The light which the Rabbins had not found, or had lost, in their theological lucubrations.
2. quasi-concr. Usually pl. The product of nocturnal study and meditation; hence, a literary work showing signs of careful elaboration. Now somewhat derisive or playful, suggesting the notion of something pedantic or over-elaborate.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 432. His learned lucubrations and most solid workes of Diuinity.
1622. Wotton, in Reliq. (1672), 248. Which unfinished lucubration (for so I may justly call it, having been for the most part born in the night).
1693. N. Mather, Pref. to Owen’s Holy Spirit, 4. There are some other Lucubrations of his on Subjects nearly allied unto these.
1709. Steele & Swift, Tatler, No. 70, ¶ 2. Having read your Lucubrations of the 10th Instant.
1745. Fielding, True Patriot, Wks. 1775, IX. 285. The encouragement with which these lucubrations are read, may seem … more difficult to be accounted for.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, 20 March, an. 1750. Unconnected fragments of his lucubrations were purposely jumbled together.
c. 1800. K. White, Rem. (1837), 385. A future number of my lucubrations.
1828. J. Ballantyne, Exam. Human Mind, 26. I have divided my Lucubrations into Four Parts.
1862. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., VIII. v. (1872), III. 36. We search in vain through tons of dusty lucubration.
1876. A. Laing, Lindores Abb., xiii. 127. [She] endenvoured to turn his pious lucubrations into French Verse.
