Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Turning about an axis; revolving or whirling.
- adjective Affected by vertigo; dizzy.
- adjective Tending to produce vertigo.
- adjective Inclined to change quickly; unstable.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Turning round; whirling; rotary: as, a vertiginous motion.
- Affected with vertigo; giddy; dizzy.
- Apt to turn or change; unstable.
- Apt to make one giddy; inducing giddiness: as, a vertiginous height.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Turning round; whirling; rotary; revolving.
- adjective Affected with vertigo; giddy; dizzy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Having an aspect of great depth, drawing the eye to look downwards.
- adjective Inducing a feeling of
giddiness ,vertigo ,dizziness or ofwhirling . - adjective Pertaining to
vertigo (in all its meanings). - adjective
Revolving ;rotating ;rotatory .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective having or causing a whirling sensation; liable to falling
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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He wrote surreal portraits of middle-class life reminiscent of Ionesco, though he has said his real influences were English specialists in vertiginous silliness like Lewis Carroll and P.G. Wodehouse.
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He wrote surreal portraits of middle-class life reminiscent of Ionesco, though he has said his real influences were English specialists in vertiginous silliness like Lewis Carroll and P.G. Wodehouse.
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The title refers to the vertiginous falls in Bach's chorale prelude Durch Adams Fall, which inspired the piece.
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Ivan Hewett 2012
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We too visited Cassis and took the "vertiginous" road over Cap Canille to La Ciotat.
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We too visited Cassis and took the "vertiginous" road over Cap Canille to La Ciotat.
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And not just any heels: the only ones to be seen in are those preceded by adjectives such as "vertiginous", "teetering" and "skyscraper".
Home | Mail Online 2010
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In 2008 it was James Marsh with his vertiginous doc Man on Wire, in 2009 it was Duncan Jones with his philosophical sci-fi parable Moon, and last year Chris Morris became an unlikely Sundance hero with his biting jihadist comedy Four Lions.
Paddy Considine: 'I'm trying to make sense of a lot of things' 2011
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The effect of the wartime section of the journal is vertiginous.
Things Fall Apart Modris Eksteins 2011
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A chance encounter in a Greenwich Village dive sets a Brooklyn-born secretary on a vertiginous climb toward the highest reaches of New York society.
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But the book is less a tale of a renowned author's vertiginous spiral into depression than it is a mother's poignant tribute to a Chinese-American girl who achieved success through her own intelligence, hard work and grit, but also with the extraordinary support of those closest to her.
Hard Work, True Grit Mary Kissel 2011
jeffazi commented on the word vertiginous
dizzying; affected by vertigo
October 31, 2007
quotato commented on the word vertiginous
Looking at that word vertiginous is making me dizzy.
February 14, 2008
gangerh commented on the word vertiginous
Take a 'Vertigone' tablet.
February 14, 2008
hober commented on the word vertiginous
Used entirely too often in Perdido Street Station by China Miéville. Seriously, not a word you expect to be someone's crutch.
October 23, 2008
vendingmachine commented on the word vertiginous
adj. Having an aspect of great depth, drawing the eye to look downwards.
September 2, 2016