[f. L. Tartare-us of or pertaining to TARTARUS + -AN.] Of or belonging to the Tartaras of the ancients; hence, pertaining to hell or to purgatory; infernal.
1623. Cockeram, Tartarean, belonging to hell.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 69. Mixt with Tartarean Sulphur, and strange fire.
1702. Pope, Thebais, 435. Drives the dead to dark Tartarean coasts.
1759. W. Wilkie, Epigon., IV. 110. Many still, who yet enjoy the day, Must follow down the dark Tartarean way.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 125. The tartarean impostor and his companions at once vanished.
b. fig. (cf. infernal).
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), IV. xxxii. Your ear is … engaged by the Tartarean yell of its driver.
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, I. iii. (1872), 14. At a safe distance … lie the tartarean copper forges of Swansea.
