[f. STRENGTH sb. + -FUL.] Full of or characterized by strength.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Sam. i. 19. What maner wise fellen the strengthful [Vulg. fortes]?
c. 1450. Mirour Saluacioun, 2547. Bot crist prayed with swete teres and strengthfulle voice crying.
1584. Cogan, Haven Health, ccxl. 236. To make butterd Beere … Some put in the yolk of an egge or two…, and so they make it more strengthfull.
1604. Marston, Malcontent, II. iii. 146. We are of Medicis; Florence our friend; in court my faction Not meanly strengthful [etc.].
1830. Lamb, Lett. to Ayrton, 14 March. All which fancies, redolent of middle age and strengthful spirits, come across us ever and anon in this vale of deliberate senectitude.
1866. [Miss Thackeray], Village on Cliff, xii. Therein did her healthy and strengthful nature reassert itself, battling with these invisible foes.
Hence Strengthfulness.
1846. in Worcester (citing Westm. Rev.).
1855. in Ogilvie, Suppl.
