[syn: grandiloquent, overblown, pompous, pontifical, portentous]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Pontifical \Pon*tif"ic*al\, a. [L. pontificalis: cf. F.
pontifical. See Pontiff.]
1. Of or pertaining to a pontiff, or high priest; as,
pontifical authority; hence, belonging to the pope; papal.
[1913 Webster]
2. Of or pertaining to the building of bridges. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
Now had they brought the work by wondrous art
Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock
Over the vexed abyss. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Pontifical \Pon*tif"ic*al\, n. [F.]
1. A book containing the offices, or formulas, used by a
pontiff. --South.
[1913 Webster]
2. pl. The dress and ornaments of a pontiff. "Dressed in full
pontificals." --Sir W. Scott.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
pontifical
adj 1: proceeding from or ordered by or subject to a pope or the
papacy regarded as the successor of the Apostles; "papal
dispensation" [syn: papal, apostolic, apostolical,
pontifical]
2: denoting or governed by or relating to a bishop or bishops
[syn: episcopal, pontifical]
3: puffed up with vanity; "a grandiloquent and boastful manner";
"overblown oratory"; "a pompous speech"; "pseudo-scientific
gobbledygook and pontifical hooey"- Newsweek [syn:
grandiloquent, overblown, pompous, pontifical,
portentous]
n 1: the vestments and other insignia of a pontiff (especially a
bishop)
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
41 Moby Thesaurus words for "pontifical":
apostolic, arrogant, bigoted, bloated, bombastic, conceited,
doctrinaire, doctrinarian, dogmatic, dogmatizing, flatulent,
formal, gassy, grandiloquent, important, inflated, magisterial,
opinionated, opinionative, opinioned, oracular, papal, papish,
papist, papistic, peremptory, pompous, popish, positive,
positivistic, pronunciative, puffy, self-important,
self-opinionated, self-opinioned, solemn, stilted, stuffy, swollen,
tumid, turgid