Achillean
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A fighter on the side of Achilles in the Trojan war; an Achaean.
"[A] singular genius, whose mathematical studies gave him in his own day the reputation of a necromancer, espousing fervently the cause of Hector, called out in a voice of thunder, "Let us see whether the Achilleans can fight as well as speak?""
- 1 Resembling or relating to Achilles, the hero of the Iliad.
"Guyon subdues these Achillean affections through his own power; but they break out again as Cymochles lapses into lust and Pyrochles burns in the idle lake."
- 2 Resembling or relating to Achilles, the hero of the Iliad.; Invincible with only one small weakness (an Achilles heel), which becomes one's downfall.
- 3 Resembling or relating to Achilles, the hero of the Iliad.; Guided by emotional motives, especially rage, rather than reason.
- 4 Of or relating to Achilles Tatius, a Roman-era Greek writer.
"There is, I suggest, a typically Achillean joke at play here, a visual pun, displaying the phoenix as truly phoenix-ian in its exposure of its sex organs and at the same time snidely alluding to the Phoenicians' famed preoccupation with female genitalia."
- 5 Pertaining to the Achilles tendon.
"Tendon-reflexes, as a rule, remain intact, except the Achillean one, which is frequently either absent or lowered."
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- 6 Of or relating to sexual or romantic intimacy between men, supposedly in the style of Achilles' relationship with Patroclus.
"Historically, there was indeed an Achillean, homosexual flavor of the declassé bachelorhood out of which Hitler and others formed the advance guard of National Socialism."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Guyon subdues these Achillean affections through his own power; but they break out again as Cymochles lapses into lust and Pyrochles burns in the idle lake."
Etymology
From Achilles + -an.
Related phrases
More for "achillean"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.