[a. Fr. admire-r, a refashioning of OFr. amirer:—L. admīrā-ri to wonder at; f. ad at + mīrā-ri to wonder.]
1. intr. To feel or express surprise, or astonishment; to wonder, to marvel, to be surprised.
† a. simply. Obs.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, ix. 233. Lordings, admire not if your cheer be this, For we must keep our academic fare.
1626. T. H., trans. Caussin’s Holy Crt., 7. This would make you admire, your haire stand an end, and bloud congeale in your ueynes.
1697. Molyneux, in Locke’s Lett. (1708), 238. I should have much more admired had they been otherwise.
b. with at.
1600. Rowlands, Letting of Hum. Blood, i. 48. Vttring rare lyes to be admired at.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah Sight, II. vi. 150. King Ahab stood admiring at the miracle.
1656. Baxter, Ref. Pastor., 348. It maketh me admire at the fearful deceitfulness of the heart of man.
1708. Swift, Baucis & Phil., 148. And she admir’d as much at him.
1759. Martin, Nat. Hist., I. 271. Posterity may justly admire at their being demolished.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., III. VIII. iv. 17. A result, which Friedrich Wilhelm not a little admires at.
c. with subord. cl. arch. or dial.
1600. Holland, Livy, I. xli. 24. A great concourse of the People, admiring what the matter was.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. State, II. iii. 59. We may more admire that so beastly a drunkard lived so long.
1681. Crowne, Hen. VI., IV. 38. I admire my Lord of Glocester is not come.
1694. Provid. of God, 147. I admired why I should be suspected.
1701. Penn, in Pa. Hist. Soc. Mem., IX. 45. I admire how thou couldst stay so long.
1794. Godwin, Caleb Williams, 176. I admire that the earth does not open and swallow you alive.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, 316. Mrs. Chick admires that Edith should be, by nature, such a perfect Dombey.
† d. with inf. Obs. or dial.
1645. Howell, England’s Tears, 173. The Italian admires to see a people argue themselves thus into arms.
1676. Hobbes, Iliad, XXIV. 386. You would admire to see him look so fresh.
1869. Louisa M. Alcott, Little Women, I. ix. 134. I admire to do it.
2. trans. To view with wonder or surprise; to wonder or marvel at. arch.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, ii. 40. England and Europe shall admire thy fame.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. ix. 83. He accounts their examples rather to be admired then imitated.
1682. Lond. Gaz., mdccxxvii/3. We cannot but admire and dread those restless Men.
1714. Addison, Spect., No. 575, ¶ 6. How can we sufficiently admire the Stupidity or Madness of these Persons?
1738. Warburton, Div. Legat., I. 68. That Disorder in the Life of Man, which Moralists so much admire.
1876. Farrar, Marlb. Serm., iv. 36. One hardly knows whether most to admire the stupidity of such a degradation or to detest its guilt.
Hence, by insensible gradations.
3. To regard with pleased surprise, or with wonder mingled with esteem, approbation or affection; and in modern usage, To gaze on with pleasure.
1594. H. Willobie, in Shaks. Cent. Praise, 10. You must admire her sober grace.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. i. 29. We do admire This virtue, and this morall discipline.
1660. T. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 31/2. Some Vulcan’s and Minerva’s arts admire.
1751. Harris, Hermes (1841), 113. Admiring only the authors of our own age.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., III. 163. Thus long she reign’d, admired, if not approved.
1860. Tyndall, Glaciers, I. § 16. 118. I had occasion to admire the knowledge and promptness of my guide.
1878. G. Macdonald, Ann. Quiet Neighb., xxx. 526. She could admire good people.
† 4. causal. To astonish, to surprise. Obs. rare.
c. 1650. Don Bellianis, 204. A Tent … with so many gallant Devices, that it admired every beholder.
