a. [f. L. Cyclōpē-us, a. Gr. Κυκλώπειος, and Cyclōpius, a. Gr. Κυκλώπιος, f. Κύκλωπες the builders of the walls of Mycenæ, pl. of Κύκλωψ a Cyclops, a one-eyed giant of ancient mythology.]
1. Belonging to or resembling the Cyclopes; monstrous, gigantic, huge; single, or large and round, like the one eye of a Cyclops.
1641. Symonds, Serm. bef. Ho. Com., C iv b. To redeem from the Cyclopean power that which is the glory of Christ.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IX. 422. Such as th’ unbless’d Cyclopean climes produce.
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., III. 293. Then, forged by Cyclopean art, appear’d Thunders.
1858. Lardner, Hand-bk. Nat. Phil., 7. Press by which the Britannia tubular bridge was erected…. The weight and bulk of this cyclopean engine were in accordance with its vast mechanical power.
1878. Newcomb, Pop. Astron., II. i. 139. We may liken the telescope to a ‘Cyclopean eye.’
2. Antiq. Applied to an ancient style of masonry in which the stones are of immense size and more or less irregular shape; found in Greece, Italy, and elsewhere, and anciently fabled to be the work of a gigantic Thracian race called Cyclopes from their king Cyclops. Now applied also to similar ancient work in other regions.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. ii. 61. The huge structures … commonly described by the epithet Cyclopean. Ibid., 62. The most unsightly Cyclopian wall.
1845. Petrie, Round Towers Irel., 169. A style of masonry perfectly Cyclopean.
