Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of or relating to Parthia or its people, language, or culture.
- adjective Delivered in or as if in retreat.
- noun A native or inhabitant of Parthia.
- noun The Iranian language of the Parthians.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of or pertaining to Parthia, an ancient region in Persia, which from the third century
b. c. to the third centurya. d. formed the nucleus of an important Asiatic kingdom. - noun A native or an inhabitant of Parthia.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to ancient Parthia, in Asia.
- adjective an arrow discharged at an enemy when retreating from him, as was the custom of the ancient Parthians; hence, a parting shot.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Relating to
Parthia or Parthians. - adjective Delivered as if in retreat. (An allusion to the Parthian battle tactic of firing arrows backwards from horseback while apparently in retreat.)
- noun A native or inhabitant of
Parthia . - noun An extinct Western Iranian language that was spoken in
Parthia .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective pertaining to Parthia or its people or language or culture
- noun a native or inhabitant of Parthia
- noun the Iranian language spoken in the Parthian kingdom (250 BC to AD 226)
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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While Cicero was busy with the condition of his province; his attention was distracted by what we may call a Parthian "scare."
Roman life in the days of Cicero Alfred John Church 1870
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Should there be among my auditors any teachers who look upon the severity of the preceding remarks as an attack upon themselves, let them spare their resentment, by reflecting that the present company is always excepted, and that critics carry on a kind of Parthian warfare discharging their shafts, not at those before their faces, but those behind their backs.
North Carolina Schools and Academies 1790-1840 A Documentary History Charles Lee 1915
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Americans for adopting a "Parthian" mode of warfare, instead of
The Naval War of 1812 Or the History of the United States Navy during the Last War with Great Britain to Which Is Appended an Account of the Battle of New Orleans Theodore Roosevelt 1888
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And lastly, he could throw a knife backwards while running at full speed with such strength and precision of aim that this new kind of Parthian arrow would go whistling through the air to hide two inches of its iron head in a tree trunk no thicker than a man's thigh.
Massacres of the South (1551-1815) Celebrated Crimes Alexandre Dumas p��re 1836
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However, in the absence of evidence of continuity, we are also free to assume radical discontinuity, and this seems safer in the light of the disappearance of Elamite and, more importantly, the lack of Parthian rulers with Achaemenian names.
Matthew Yglesias » Toy Drives Checking Immigration Status of Children 2009
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This suggests that Romans themselves probably stirred up one of the myriad subject peoples of Parthia to themselves revolt, since the Parthian Great Kings spent basically all of their reigns in the saddle, or that Nero was paying them an enormous amount to stay out, or that the Romans got insanely lucky, and the Great King was involved somewhere else, either warring in the East or facing a civil war of his own.
Matthew Yglesias » Toy Drives Checking Immigration Status of Children 2009
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Follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Parthian War to Cleopatra's suicide.
Capsule Summaries of the Great Books of the Western World Jonathan Aquino 2009
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They focus on the successful cross-pollination of cultures at Dura-Europos, how Greek, Jewish, Parthian, Roman and Christian cultures synthesized and abided in harmony.
Rare Objects, Rarer Practices Melik Kaylan 2011
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Follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Parthian War to Cleopatra's suicide.
Archive 2009-03-01 Jonathan Aquino 2009
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We are committed to a narrative of Zoroastrian continuity from ancient times and so have some difficulty in understanding not only what the “Magians” might be if not “Zoroastrian,” but what might have happened to them during the four centuries of Parthian power.
Matthew Yglesias » Toy Drives Checking Immigration Status of Children 2009
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