Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A magician and alchemist in German legend who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for power and knowledge.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • A tragedy by Goethe, commenced in 1772, and published. as “Faust, ein Fragment” in 1790. Part 1, complete, was published as "Faust, eine Tragödie" in 1808; part 2, finished in 1831, was published in 1833. It has been translated into English by Bayard Taylor, Blackie, Anster, Hayward, Martin, and others (nearly 40 in all). Goethe accomplished the transformation of Faust from a common necromancer and conjurer into a personification of humanity, tempted and disquieted, but at length groping its way to the light. See Goethe.
  • An opera by Gounod (words, after Goethe, by Carré and Barbier) represented at the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris, March 19, 1859.
  • An opera by Spohr, first produced at Frankfurt in 1818. The words, which do not follow Goethe's play, are by Bernhard.
  • noun an alchemist of German legend who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge.
  • Doctor Johann Faust, a person born at Kundling (Knittlingen), Würtemberg, or at Roda, near Weimar, and said to have died in 1588. He was a man of licentious character, a magician, astrologer, and soothsayer, who boasted of performing the miracles of Christ. It was believed that he was carried off at last by the devil, who had lived with him in the form of a black dog.

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

  • proper noun a magician and alchemist of German lore who sold his soul to the Devil for knowledge

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an alchemist of German legend who sold his soul to Mephistopheles in exchange for knowledge

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German, after Johann Faust, (1480?–1540?), German magician and alchemist.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

After Johann Faust, German magician and alchemist

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Examples

  • For the drama of _Faust_ is not a drama of damnation, but of redemption, and though the breadth and scope of the whole conception pass beyond all presentation in complete and rounded form, the great tragedy of Gretchen takes us from the splendid but abstract world of ideas into the simplest experience of human life, where Faust becomes human through love itself, but too slowly, too late to avert the tragedy.

    The Unity of Civilization Various

  • [PAGE 89] THE FAUST MYTH caused the Sons of Cain in all ages to carry on the world's work -- is also strong in Faust; and the glorious use to which he puts the powers of evil, namely, making them build a new land, a free one, where a happy and free people may dwell in peace and contentment, gives us a view of what the fu - ture has in store for us.

    Max Heindel's Letters to Students by The Rosicrucian Fellowship 1910

  • _motif_ of his works; nay, finally, it finds these more interesting than the works themselves; it reads more about Goethe than what has been written by Goethe, and industriously studies the legend of Faust in preference to Goethe's _Faust_ itself.

    Essays of Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer 1824

  • = Mephistoph´eles = (5 _syl. _), the sneering, jeering, leering attendant demon of Faust in Goethe’s drama of _Faust_, and Gounod’s opera of the same name.

    Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 Ebenezer Cobham Brewer 1853

  • The date, March 18, 1817, is in John Murray's handwriting.] [107] [So, too, Faust is discovered "in a high -- vaulted narrow Gothic chamber."] [108] [Compare _Faust, _ act i. sc.

    The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 4 George Gordon Byron Byron 1806

  • Drew Gilpin Faust is president of Harvard University www. harvard.edu.

    2008 November 19 « One-Minute Book Reviews 2008

  • I know Christa Faust is a die-hard Helen Nielsen fan.

    Madwomen 2007

  • In October, at the end of this season, Faust is retiring.

    Party Winds Down for Baseball Organist 2010

  • In October, at the end of this season, Faust is retiring.

    Party Winds Down for Baseball Organist 2010

  • In October, at the end of this season, Faust is retiring.

    Party Winds Down for Baseball Organist 2010

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