a. and sb. Also in 6 epicureane, 7 epicurian. [f. L. epicūrē-us, late L. epicūrius (ad. Gr. ἐπικούρειος, f. Ἐπίκουρος Epicurus) + -AN. Cf. Fr. Épicurien.]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to Epicurus, or to the ethical and physical system of philosophy taught by him.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. (1594), 442. Fortune being an Epicurian worde, rather than an Heathenish, is nothing else but a fained device of mans spirit, and an imagination without truth.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. iii. III. (1676), 205/2. It was no Epicurean speech of an Epicure.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., III. ii. § 11. 447. The Atomical or Epicurean Hypothesis.
1741. C. Middleton, Cicero, III. XII. (ed. 2), 378. That chief good of an Epicurean life, his private ease and safety.
1861. Mill, Utilit., ii. 11. There is no known Epicurean theory of life which does not assign to the pleasures of the intellect … a much higher value as pleasures than to those of mere sensation.
2. Devoted to the pursuit of pleasure; hence, luxurious, sensual, gluttonous. Now chiefly: Devoted to refined and tasteful sensuous enjoyment.
1641. Milton, Ch. Discipl., II. (1851), 66. Warming their Palace Kitchins, and from thence their unctuous, and epicurean paunches.
1656. Cowley, Poems, Grasshopper. Voluptuous, and Wise withal, Epicurean Animal!
1850. Carlyle, Latter-d. Pamph., vi. (1872), 192. No longer an earnest Nation, but a light epicurean one.
1868. Tennyson, Lucretius, 215. Nothing to mar the sober majesties Of settled, sweet, Epicurean life.
b. Suited to the taste of an epicure.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. i. 24. Epicurean Cookes, Sharpen with cloylesse sawce his Appetite.
B. sb. 1. A disciple of Epicurus; one who holds views similar to his.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xiv. § 9. Oo 4 b. Velleius the Epicurian needed not to haue asked, why God should haue adorned the Heauens with Starres.
1698. Norris, Pract. Disc. (1707), IV. 101. He may think with the Epicurean, that God is an idle, unactive Being.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., IV. § 16. The very Epicureans allowed the being of gods.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (ed. 4), I. 74. The Epicureans and the Stoics, I say, came forward to supply that moral want.
2. One who makes pleasure the chief object of his life.
a. 1572. Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. (1846), I. 236. Symon Preastoun … a right Epicureane.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., i. 25. Those poor brutish Epicureans have nothing but the mere husks of fleshly pleasure to feed themselues with.
1825. Scott, Talism., x. He was a voluptuary and an epicurean.
1866. Motley, Dutch Rep., II. i. 131. A horde of lazy epicureans, telling beads and indulging themselves in luxurious vice.
