a. [f. prec.]
1. Pertaining or appropriate to, characteristic of, a spectator.
In earlier examples with reference to SPECTATOR 3.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 336, ¶ 1. I hope your Spectatorial Authority will give a seasonable Check to the Spread of the Infection. Ibid., No. 430, ¶ 1. All which is submitted to your Spectatorial Vigilance.
1744. Eliza Heywood, Female Spectator, V. (1748), I. 257. In fine, my spectatorial capacity will permit me to approve of no other entertainments which are paid for.
1889. A. C. Benson, in Macm. Mag., May, 40/1. He [Charles II.] … stood in a spectatorial attitude, watching the world through wicked, humorous eyes.
2. Forming part of a spectacle.
1783. Colman, Prose Sev. Occas. (1787), III. 73. To introduce a groupe of Spectatorial actors speaking in one part of the Drama and singing in another.
3. Having the characteristics of one or other of the periodicals bearing the title of Spectator.
1817. Whewell, in Todhunter, Acc. Writ. (1876), II. 21. A magazine or periodical collection of essays upon all subjects, scientific, literary, spectatorial, or any other.
1834. Southey, Doctor, lxiii. (1848), 134. A painter night describe the facial angle,… and whether the chin was in the just mean between rueful length and spectatorial brevity.
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 4 March, 2/2. Disposing of it [the ‘woman question’] in one of those airy generalizations which Spectatorial omniscience is wont to throw off from time to time.
