multitudinousadj.

1603 T. Dekker 1603: Wonderfull Yeare sig. B3 The great impostume of the realme was drawne Euen to a head: the multitudinous spawne Was the corruption, which did make it swell.

1604 B. Jonson Particular Entertainm. at Althrope sig. B3^v, in His Pt. Royall Entertainem. There was also another parting speach, Which..by reason of the Multitudinous presse was also hindred.

1606 T. Dekker Seuen Deadly Sinnes London ii. sig. C3^v In a State so multitudinous, where so many flocks of people must be fed.

a1662 P. Heylyn Cyprianus Anglicus (1668) 70 The Puritan faction, which was grown multitudinous and strong.

a1777 S. Foote Devil upon Two Sticks (1778) i. 16 Inv. Is your family pretty large and extensive? Devil. Multitudinous as the sands on the beach, or the moats in a sun-beam.

1837 H. Hallam Introd. Lit. Europe I. vi. 524 A more multitudinous brood of sectaries.

1840 W. H. Ainsworth Tower of London (1862) 212 When this multitudinous and confused assemblage had nearly filled the inclosure.

1882 A. W. Ward Dickens v. 112 Never before had his versatility..filled his canvas with so multitudinous and so various a host of personages.

1970 G. Dickson Hour of Horde xiv. 160 Rushing in self-intoxicated fury upon the death that was the multitudinous enemy of the Silver Horde.

1993 B. Aldiss Tupolev too Far (BNC) 118 It is laughable now to imagine a single one of the earth's multitudinous dead being burnt by fire or buried by earth.

a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1958) IX. 53 The foundation of all, the Trinity, undermined by those numerous, those multitudinous Anthills of Socinians.

1650 Brief Descr. Future Hist. Europe 23 Confounding..the multitudinous Pagans and Idolaters fighting against Christians.

1658 P. Heylyn Stumbling-block of Disobedience vi. 275 The more multitudinous and united the Petitioners are, the more like to speed.

1762–7 D. Garrick Lett. (1963) III. 1303 I should have forgot my multitudinous Cares for three hours at least.

1797 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. 22 345 The multitudinous porers in black literature.

1805 R. Southey Madoc ii. xxv. 408 The lesser fowls Flock multitudinous in heaven.

1846 R. C. Trench Notes Miracles Prelim. Ess. iv. 45 The multitudinous races of animals which people this world.

1885 J. Runciman Skippers & Shellbacks 2 His oilskins..poured multitudinous streams from all their crinkles.

1929 C. Aiken Sel. Poems 256 Cloud-palaces and kingdoms dark And multitudinous cities of rose Within his dream are spread.

1954 O. Sitwell Four Continents iv. 98 In its long round-roofed corridors..a hot nineteenth-century gloom still prevailed, and even the multitudinous goods displayed with such ability by the vendors..did not prevent the scene from being depressing.

1998 N.Y. Times Mag. 20 Sept. 83/1 Then there is the poser of how to squeeze the multitudinous pixels of first-class digital imaging into the cramped bandwidths of broadcast TV.

1656 T. Blount Glossographia Multitudinous, pertaining to a multitude; that hath a great..number, or great store of.

1744 R. North & M. North Life Sir D. North & Rev. J. North 173 The Abuses in the Management of the Royal Navy, and the multitudinous Fraud that corroded there.

1769 T. Smollett Hist. & Adventures Atom I. 120 Taycho..was convoyed home in triumph by that many-headed hydra the mob, which shook its multitudinous tail.

1820 L. Hunt Indicator 23 Feb. 155 It was the rocks of an isle beyond Inistore, which made that multitudinous roaring of the wind.

1850 N. Hawthorne Scarlet Let. Introd. 4 The pavement..has not..been worn by any multitudinous resort of business.

1891 T. Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles II. xxxii. 145 From the whole extent of the invisible vale came a multitudinous intonation.

1936 Practitioners Libr. Med. & Surg. X. vi. 617 Much of the confusion that has been occasioned by parapsoriasis is attributable to its widely differing clinical types and its multitudinous nomenclature.

1987 S. Gibson & R. Gibson Homoeopathy for Everyone (BNC) 48 The multitudinous array of chemical substances that exist in the natural world.