Pickwickian

(redirected from Pickwickians)
Also found in: Encyclopedia.

Pick·wick·i·an

 (pĭk-wĭk′ē-ən)
adj.
1. Simple and kind: a Pickwickian uncle.
2. Meant or understood in an idiosyncratic or unusual way: a word used in a Pickwickian manner.
[After Mr. Pickwick, central character in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club by Charles Dickens.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Pickwickian

(pɪkˈwɪkɪən)
adj
1. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) of, relating to, or resembling Mr Pickwick in Charles Dickens' The Pickwick Papers, esp in being naive or benevolent
2. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) (of the use or meaning of a word, etc) odd or unusual
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Pick•wick•i•an

(pɪkˈwɪk i ən)

adj.
1. simple, kind, endearing, or otherwise like Mr. Pickwick, central character of Charles Dickens' novel The Pickwick Papers (1837).
2. (of the use or interpretation of a word or phrase) odd or unusual.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Mentioned in ?
References in classic literature ?
'That, with the view just mentioned, this Association has taken into its serious consideration a proposal, emanating from the aforesaid, Samuel Pickwick, Esq., G.C.M.P.C., and three other Pickwickians hereinafter named, for forming a new branch of United Pickwickians, under the title of The Corresponding Society of the Pickwick Club.
(A cry of "It is," and great cheering.) He would take the assertion of that honourable Pickwickian whose voice he had just heard--it was celebrated; but if the fame of that treatise were to extend to the farthest confines of the known world, the pride with which he should reflect on the authorship of that production would be as nothing compared with the pride with which he looked around him, on this, the proudest moment of his existence.
Pickwickian would withdraw the expression he had just made use of.
BLOTTON had no hesitation in saying that he had not--he had used the word in its Pickwickian sense.
He begged it to be at once understood, that his own observations had been merely intended to bear a Pickwickian construction.
View in context
Winkle, one of the Pickwickians, is a mild and foolish boaster, who pretends that he can do things he cannot.
Weller disengaged himself from the grasp of the agonised Pickwickian; and, in so doing, administered a considerable impetus to the unhappy Mr.
View in context
Even if the Pickwickians didn't field a team of eleven, at least they had the decency and sense of tradition to play with a multiple of eleven.
Weather rains supreme over the Aussies
McCuskey notes in "'Your Love-Sick Pickwick'", "Sam's erotic urges never threaten the stolid middle-class community because the novel limits his desire to lower-class female subjects; his nods and winks are never directed at the Pickwickians' ladyfriends" (259).
An "ideological servant"?: A study of the servant figure in Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day/"Ideolojik usak"? Kazuo Ishiguro'nun The Remains of the Day adli romanindaki hizmetci figuru uzerine bir inceleme
This musical, based on Dickens' Pickwick Papers and originally written for Sir Harry Secombe, tells the story Samuel Pickwick, his friends the Pickwickians and his valet Sam Weller, as they unintentionally get involved in a pistol duel, an election in which Pickwick is mistaken for the candidate, and a lawsuit for breach of promise after a widow thinks he has proposed to her.
A Dickens of a musical!
The story of "The Convict's Return" is told to the Pickwickians by the clergyman of Dingley Dell.
Dickens's versions of Australia's story (i)

Dictionary browser ?
Full browser ?