a. [f. L. ambrosi-us, a. Gr. ἀμβρόσι-ος (see AMBROSIA) + -AL 1.]
1. Immortal, divine, celestial, ethereal. a. orig. in the Greek mythology: Belonging to or worthy of the gods, as their food, anointing oil, locks, raiment, sandals, etc.
1596. Drayton, Leg., iii. 118. Me with Ambrosiall Delicacies fed.
1718. Pope, Iliad, V. 460. Fed by fair Iris with ambrosial food.
1790. Cowper, Iliad, I. 685. The sovereign’s everlasting head his curls Ambrosial shook.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. vi. 193. They need the refreshment of ambrosial food.
1866. Felton, Greece, I. viii. 129. The Homeric father of gods and men, from whose head the locks ambrosial waved.
1870. Bryant, Homer, II. XIV. 54. Rich oil, Ambrosial, soft and fragrant. Ibid. (1877), Odyss., I. 121. The fair, ambrosial, golden sandals.
b. transf. Belonging to heaven or paradise.
1637. Milton, Comus, 16. I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds With the rank vapours of this sin-worn mould.
1647. Crashaw, Poems, 206. The bright ambrosial nest, Of love, of life, and everlasting rest.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 586. Ambrosial fruits, fetched from the tree of life, And from the fount of life ambrosial drink.
c. 1746. Hervey, Medit. & Cont. (1818), 109. The trees of life and knowledge, whose anbrosial fruits we now may ‘take and eat, and live for ever.’
c. fig. Divinely fragrant; perfumed as with ambrosia; balmy; rarely, Divinely beautiful.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 832. Fruit, that … ambrosial smell diffus’d.
1702. Rowe, Amb. Step-Mother, III. ii. 46. From thee … Ambrosial Odours flow.
1719. Young, Revenge, V. i. Wks. 1757, II. 173. Th’ ambrosial rose, And breath of jess’min.
1781. Cowper, Expost., 11. Ambrosial gardens.
1815. Moore, Lalla R. (1824), 248. One of those ambrosial eves A day of storm so often leaves.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, 87. The broad ambrosial aisles of lofty lime.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. iii. 345. When any ambrosial colour spread itself.
2. Of the pollen of flowers, or of bee-bread. rare.
1816. Kirby & Spence, Entomol. (1843), II. 157. [It] covers itself with their ambrosial dust which it kneads into a mass and packs upon its hind legs.
