Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A vow or obligation placed upon a person.
  • noun A curse.
  • noun A mystical compulsion.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Irish geis.

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Examples

  • "To break a geas, that is courting complete dis - aster."

    Three Against The Witch World Norton, Andre 1965

  • For the Eddorian's binding'this is perhaps as good a word for it as any, since "geas" implies a curse-was such that the Gray Lensman could return to space and time only under such conditions and to such an environment as would not do him any iota of physical harm.

    Children of the Lens Smith, E. E. 1954

  • It is the geas which is laid on every person, and the life of every man is as my life, with no moment free from some bond or another.

    Figures of Earth James Branch Cabell 1918

  • "I do not know," said Manuel, "but I suppose it is because of a geas which is upon me to make myself a splendid and admirable young man in every respect, and not an old man."

    Figures of Earth James Branch Cabell 1918

  • And now has come upon me a geas which is not to be lifted either by toils or by miracles.

    Figures of Earth James Branch Cabell 1918

  • I have heard, by legend, that a geas is a thing of great power, not lightly broken. "

    Year of the Unicorn Norton, Andre 1965

  • "You could say I am under a kind of geas, one that binds me to help women in need.

    Oathblood Lackey, Mercedes 1998

  • The geas snapped into place before I could stop it.

    Brush of Darkness Allison Pang 2011

  • I, who was never anything but utterly loyal to her, refused to lift that pathetic geas.

    Brush of Darkness Allison Pang 2011

  • The geas snapped into place before I could stop it.

    Brush of Darkness Allison Pang 2011

Comments

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  • Did you happen to find this while reading Lois McMaster Bujold? ;)

    December 5, 2006

  • Janny Wurts uses this word fairly frequently.

    December 6, 2006

  • I ran across it in a session of D&D (*nerd alert*) when a DM used a lesser geas on a player. I had to ask him what the hell he was talking about; it didn't sound (or look) like a real word.

    January 5, 2007

  • "The Sorcerer Royal's servants had formerly been bond by a geas against disclosure of any detail of his household affairs, breach of which was visited by the most terrible revenge."

    Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, p 188

    November 14, 2015