Proteanadj.n.

1594 G. Chapman Σκìα Νυκτòς sig. Biv Sweet Protean dreames she sends of euery sort: Some taking formes of Princes, to perswade..Some clad in habit of deceased friends [etc.].

1598 J. Marston Certaine Satyres in Metamorph. Pigmalions Image 47 I shall stand in doubt What sex thou art, since such Hermaphrodites Such Protean shadowes so delude our sights.

1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage viii. x. 664 He escaped by his Protean Arts; now appearing like an Eagle, the second time like a Tygre, the third like a Serpent.

1679 Established Test 3 Their Protean Faculties of Dissimulation, Perjury, and Putting on so many Shapes.

1700 T. D'Urfey Famous Hist. Rise & Fall Massaniello i. v. i. 45 So well I've plotted, I am unsuspected of the late Conspiracy—and now have formed another Protean plot, to seat myself securely.

1753 H. Jones Merit 21 The Protean Skill of Action we admire. The Eagle thus that wheels aloft in Air, Can sudden stoop..Then instant spring, and mount to Heav'n again.

1832 Times 31 Mar. 4/3 The Lord Chancellor, with all his Protean powers.

1845 J. Phillips & C. G. B. Daubeny Geol. in Encycl. Metrop. VI. 559/2 Its geological relations should always be consulted before deciding on the name of this Protean rock.

1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species ii. 46 Genera which have sometimes been called ‘protean’ or ‘polymorphic’, in which the species present an inordinate amount of variation.

1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xiv. 97 The scene had time to go through several of its Protean mutations.

1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 346 General paralysis is of necessity a protean malady.

1929 C. Aiken Sel. Poems 335 Her protean fiery body and lithe arms.

1978 I. Berlin Russian Thinkers 23 The many varied provinces of Pushkin's protean genius.

1991 R. Rendell Kissing Gunner's Daughter (1992) xii. 142 There was something protean about him, so that in certain lights and at certain angles you would have called him a sharp-featured man with a hard jawline, while at others his nose and mouth looked almost feminine.

1813 W. Bingley Animal Biogr. (ed. 4) III. 568 The Protean Vibrio..a species which has derived its name from its very singular power of assuming different shapes.

1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. I. 645/1 The Protean animals..do not undergo..any further metamorphosis.

1874 Amer. Naturalist 8 741 We have almost anticipated a definition of the Rhizopoda, of which the Amœba, or Protean animalcule, is the simplest form.

1871 Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 2 May 1/1 Operettas, Protean Burlesque, Monologue and Duologue Pieces.

1892 Chicago Tribune 4 Aug. The academy is not so rich in Shakespearean scenery as in..appurtenances of the protean drama.

1897 Daily Tel. 10 Mar. 4/5 Few will deny that Leopoldi Fregoli..is..alert, versatile, neat in his business, quick as lightning in his changes, and..the best ‘protean’ entertainer that the oldest playgoer has ever seen.

1946 S. T. Felstead Stars who made Halls xiii. 132 This was nothing more than protean work; he had to play five characters a night and received thereby the munificent sum of twenty-five shillings a week.

1995 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 14 Oct. The Protean extras transform from eunuch to soldier or slave in double-quick-change time.

1959 Chance & Russell in Proc. Zool. Soc. 132 67 We therefore propose the term ‘Protean Displays’. The mythical Proteus frustrated would-be captors by constantly changing his shape, so that they had nothing systematic to which to react.

1970 Nature 6 June 968/1 We have surveyed the occurrence of such protean behaviours and defined them as behaviours which are sufficiently unsystematic in appearance to prevent a reactor predicting in detail the position and/or actions of the actor.

1993 Canad. Jrnl. Zool. 71 1562 We suggest that low-altitude erratic flight in moths is a protean insurance defence against bats.

1890 Cent. Dict. Protean, a salamander of the family Proteidæ.

1909 Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. 30 72 It is difficult for a mere European, brought up on a dictionary and accustomed to define everything accurately, to grasp the Proteanism, the fluidity, if I may so speak, of the Hindu divinity called for the most part simply Devi.

1951 R. Hargreaves This Happy Breed vii. 77 The proteanism of his endless duties knows no limitation.

1998 New Scientist 22 Aug. 32/3 Proteanism could also make sense of some of the more bizarre interactions between predators and prey.

1678 R. Cudworth True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. i. 36 Matter..only Proteanly transformed into different Shapes.

1962 MLN 77 353 The author had mistakenly identified the artists from the initials on the engravings, and he had no idea of how proteanly interchangeable text and illustration were.

1988 New Lit. Hist. 20 202 Croce and Derrida's shared historicist view of language as proteanly dynamic and creative.

2000 D. Carr Professionalism & Ethics in Teaching i. i. 10 Both concepts are proteanly resistant to precise formulations.