a. [f. ENERG-Y + -IC; cf. F. énergique, It. energico.]
† 1. Powerfully operative; = ENERGETIC 2. Obs.
1665. G. Harvey, Advice agst. Plague, 7. Not so Energick as to venenate the intire mass of blood in an instant. Ibid. (1689), Curing Dis. by Expect., xvi. 124. The most Energick Simples.
1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom (1784), 13/2. A juice much more energick than the milk of goat, wolf, or woman.
2. Characterized by energy; strenuous, forcible, vigorous; = ENERGETIC 3. Now rare.
1702. trans. Le Clerc’s Prim. Fathers, 45. Expressions … not … energick enough to express such Thoughts.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 65. The energic exertions of ardent minds.
1818. J. H. Frere, Whistlecraft’s National Poem, III. xli. 21. The strong Frying-pan’s energic jangle.
1876. J. Ellis, Caesar in Egypt, 32. Caesar, astute, energic, press’d the war.
3. nonce-uses. (see quots.)
1796–7. Coleridge, Poems, Lines on Friend. To me hath Heaven with bounteous hand assigned Energic reason. Ibid. (1834), Lett., 1 March. My mind is always energic—I don’t mean energetic: I require in everything what, for lack of another word, I may call propriety,—that is, a reason, why the thing is at all, and why it is there or then rather than elsewhere or at another time.
1859. Blackw. Mag., LXXXVI. 242/2. The energic faculty that we call Will.
