a. [f. prec.] Resembling (that of) the Sphinx; esp. enigmatical, mysterious, inscrutable, insoluble.
1837. [Miss Maitland], Lett. Madras (1843), 136. She was an immense creature, but young, and rather a good sphinx-like face.
1839. Bailey, Festus, 137. The sphinx-like heart … Loathes life the moment that life’s riddle is read.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ At Bay, iv. ‘I know nothing. I have seen very little. I suspect every thing.’ ‘What a sphinx-like reply.’
