a. and sb. [f. VISION sb. + -ARY. Cf. F. visionnaire, It., Sp., Pg. visionario.]
A. adj. 1. Able or accustomed to see visions; capable of receiving impressions, or obtaining knowledge, by means of visions.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., III. xxxvi. 231. Such quarrells amongst the Visionary Prophets.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, III. 576. Thus, many not succeeding, most upbraid The madness of the visionary maid.
a. 1721. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), I. 79. So visionary brains ascend the sky, While on the ground entranc’d the wretches lie.
1771. Beattie, Minstr., I. xxix. See, in the rear of the warm sunny shower The visionary boy from shelter fly.
1792. S. Rogers, Pleas. Mem., I. 161. What spells entrance my visionary mind.
1817. Scott, Harold, V. xvii. O, think upon the words of fear Spoke by that visionary Seer.
1850. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863), 383. And as she grew up, she became a strange, solitary, visionary child, to whom a unseen world had revealed itself.
1883. F. Galton, Hum. Faculty (1910), 125. A large natural gift of the visionary faculty might become characteristic … of certain families.
b. Given to fanciful and unpractical views; having little regard to what is actual or possible; speculative, dreamy.
1727. Swift, Let. Eng. Tongue, Wks. 1755, II. I. 183. Supplying our wants, faster than the most visionary projector can adjust his schemes.
1770. Burke, Pres. Discont., Wks. 1842, I. 124. If a man happens not to succeed in such an enquiry, he will be thought weak and visionary.
1786–7. Bonnycastle, Astron., i. 17. We laugh at the absurdities of a visionary pretender.
1817. W. Brougham, in Parl. Deb., 298. Mr. Spence, the visionary author of the new system, lived 20 years ago.
1827. Lytton, Falkland, I. 13. I grew by degrees of a more thoughtful and visionary nature.
1902. W. L. Mathieson, Politics & Relig. Scot., I. iii. 100. Knox was no visionary enthusiast.
2. Of the nature of a vision; presented or apprehended in a vision. Cf. VISIONAL 2.
1648. Boyle, Seraph. Love, xvi. (1700), 103. The sole Hymn (except a Visionary one) I find recorded of the Celestial Quire, was sung for a Blessing to Mankind.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., I. 656. Some things like Visionary flights appear; The Spirit caught him up, the Lord knows where, And [etc.].
a. 1701. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1721), 80. Which, they say, is the Mountain into which the Devil took our Blessed Saviour, when he tempted him with that visionary scene of all the Kingdoms and Glories of the World.
1720. Welton, Suffer. Son of God, I. viii. 161. These Divine Illapses of Revelation, which become Visionary in our Sleep.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 400. There, like the visionary emblem seen By him of Babylon, life stands a stump.
1838. Mrs. Browning, Seraphim, I. 205. One of those Whom the loving Father chose, In visionary pomp to sweep O’er Judæa’s grassy places.
b. Seen only in a vision; unreal, non-existent, phantom, spectral.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, II. 365. I wept to see the visionary man, And, while my trance continued, thus began. Ibid. (1700), Theod. & Hon., 280. The hounds at nearer distance hoarsely bayed; The Hunter close pursu’d the visionary Maid.
1725. Pope, Odyss., X. 633. Sudden shall skim along the dusky glades Thin airy shoals, and visionary shades.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxxviii. (1787), III. 619. The visionary fabric melted into air.
1820. Lamb, Elia, I. South-sea House. The shade of some dead accountant, with visionary pen in ear, would flit by me, stiff as in life.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xiv. There was not a corner or nook … where those fairy footsteps had not glided, and that visionary golden head … fleeted along.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. viii. By what visionary hands she was led along upon that journey to escape from the Samaritan.
c. Connected with, or pertaining to, visions.
1727–46. Thomson, Summer, 556. Here frequent, at the visionary hour, When musing midnight reigns, or silent noon, Angelic harps are in full concert heard.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 313. Having intimidated themselves apart from the rest, with visionary notions.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxxi. Meanwhile, this mysterious visionary traffic had its usual effect, in unsettling Miss Ashton’s mind.
d. Disturbed by visions.
1807. J. Barlow, Columb., I. 49. When from a visionary short repose, That nursed new cares and temper’d keener woes, Columbus woke.
3. Existing in imagination only; imaginary; not actual or real.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IV. 246. Vanish’d are all the visionary joys.
1745. J. Mason, Self Knowl., I. xiv. (1853), 105. Suffer not your Thoughts … to give you a visionary Pleasure in the Prospect of what you have not the least Reason to hope.
1798. S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., II. 308. So deep a hold had this … visionary delight taken on Emily, that the days hung heavily with her.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, III. 364. With the consolidation of the supremacy, the apprehension of its visionary evils recurred.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxiii. (1861), V. 11. The danger which seemed so terrible to many honest friends of liberty he did not venture to pronounce altogether visionary.
1876. Besant & Rice, Gold. Butterfly, i. The power of the penniless twins was a shadowy and visionary thing.
b. Of schemes, plans, etc.: Incapable of being carried out or realized; purely ideal or speculative; fantastic, unpractical.
1727. Swift, Modest Proposal, Wks. 1755, II. II. 67. Vain, idle, visionary thoughts.
1751. Earl Orrery, Remarks Swift (1752), 75. A miserable example of an ill-spent life, fantastic wit, visionary schemes, and female weakness.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer., V. (1778), II. 130. The crews of three of his ships … insisted on relinquishing the visionary project of a desperate adventurer.
1815. Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., IX. I. 77. Those [opinions] of the ancients appear to be either visionary or erroneous.
1834. Marryat, P. Simple, xlvi. These were wild and visionary notions, and with little chance of ever arriving at any successful issue.
1855. Brewster, Newton, I. xi. 265. Kepler abandoned for a while his visionary speculations.
1883. Manch. Exam., 30 Oct., 5/5. The quiet of the land is being disturbed to suit the visionary theories of well-meaning but unpractical men.
c. Characterized by fantasy or imagination without corresponding reality.
1777. J. Richardson, Dissert. East. Nations, 3. On this visionary field, learned and pious men have disputed with much want of temper.
1754. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxx. Emily sought to lose the sense of her own cares, in the visionary scenes of the poet.
1840. Thirlwall, Greece, VII. lvi. 141. Lycurgus … had not learnt … to withdraw from active life into a visionary world.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea, I. 228. If Louis Napoleon was going to be content with a visionary life [etc.].
1874. L. Stephen, Hours in Library (1892), I. v. 194. [He] sought refuge from the hard facts of commonplace life by retiring into a visionary world.
4. Pertaining to (physical or mental) vision.
1824. Wordsw., Excurs., IV. 111. It may be allowed me to remember What visionary powers of eye and soul In youth were mine.
B. sb. 1. One who has visions; one to whom unknown or future things are revealed in visions.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Visionary, one that is subject to Dreams, silly Notions and extravagant Fancies; a fantastical Pretender to Visions and Revelations.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 56, ¶ 3. One of their Countrymen descended in a Vision to the great Repository of Souls…. The Visionary … arrived at length on the Confines of this World of Spirits.
1778. T. Hartley, Pref. Swedenborg’s ‘Heaven & Hell,’ p. xi. Of such honourable repute was the name Seer, or visionary, in those times.
1830. Scott, Demonol., i. 6. It becomes almost in vain to argue with the visionary against the reality of his dream.
1850. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863), 253. On one side kneels the visionary, with features wan and worn.
1870. Baldw. Brown, Eccl. Truth, 262. Forms of perfect beauty and purity, of which the keenest visionary has had but feeble dreams.
2. One who indulges in fantastic ideas or schemes; an unpractical speculator or enthusiast.
1702. Addison, Dial. Medals, i. (1726), 28. This science has its visionaries as well as all others.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), I. p. xii. We must therefore respect the Man, even while we smile at the Visionary.
1834. Ht. Martineau, Demerara, x. 122. He had laid his accounts for being treated as a visionary, and for his own plans being laughed at as absurd.
1868. Peard, Water-farm., xiv. 140. The agriculturist … will not be deemed a visionary, because he calculates on the coming harvest with certainty.
1880. Howells, Undisc. Country, v. He’s a visionary, but he’s a good man.
