a. [ad. L. fastīdiōs-us, f. fastīdium loathing: see -OUS. Cf. Fr. fastidieux.]
† 1. That creates disgust; disagreeable, distasteful, unpleasant, wearisome. Obs.
1531. Elyot, The Boke Named the Gouernour, I. ix. By a cruel and irous mayster, the wyttes of chyldren be dulled: and that thynge, for the whiche chyldren be often tymes beaten, is to them euer after fastidious.
1582. Hester, Secr. Phiorav., II. xxiii. 102. A fastidious Ulcer.
1630. R. Johnson, Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms, etc., 193. A fastidious and irksome companion.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm. Wisdom, in Beauties of B. (1846), 9. Folly is … fastidious to society.
a. 1734. North, Lives, II. 399. His partner, whose usage was … fastidious to him.
† 2. a. That feels or is full of disgust; disgusted.
1534. More, On the Passion, Wks. 1312/1. Hee hadde of theym so muche, that he was full thereof, fastidious and wery.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 81. All desire of Change and Novelty, argues a Fastidious Satiety, proceeding from Defect and Indigency.
† b. Full of pride; disdainful; scornful. Obs.
c. 1440. Foundation Barts Hosp. (E.E.T.S.), 15. A lamentable querell, expressynge … whate fastidious owtbrekyngys hadde temptid hym.
1623–6. Cockeram, Fastidious, disdainfull, proud.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1638), 189. Regardlesse of the rodomantadoes of the fastidious Pagan.
1631. B. Jonson, New Inn, Ode, 7.
| Let their fastidious, vaine | |
| Commission of the braine | |
| Run on, and rage, sweat, censure, and condem’n: | |
| They were not made for thee, lesse, thou for them. |
1744. Young, Night Thoughts, VI. 551. Proud youth! fastidious of the lower world.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1816), II. 277 (an. 1773). We see the Rambler with fastidious smile Mark the lone tree.
1796. C. Marshall, Garden., xxii. (1813), 447. It too often happens with those who have much practical skill, that they slight what is written upon subjects of their profession; which is a fastidious temper, that the man of real merit will hardly entertain.
† c. transf. Of things: ‘Proud,’ magnificent.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 62. One of them [Courts] fastidious in foure hundred porphirian pillars. Ibid., 102. Temples of Idolatry … once lofty in fastidious Turrets.
3. Easily disgusted, squeamish, over-nice; difficult to please with regard to matters of taste or propriety.
1612–5. Bp. Hall, Contempt., O. T., XIX. x. A fastidious choice of the best commodities.
1647. Ward, The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America, 77. I hold him prudent, that in these fastidious times, will helpe disedged appetites with convenient condiments, and bangled ears, with pretty quicke pluckes.
1691. Ray, Creation, Pref. (1704), 7. This [Book] may serve to relieve those fastidious Readers, that are not willing to take the Pains to search them out.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 513.
| The weary sight, | |
| Too well acquainted with their smiles, slides off | |
| Fastidious, seeking less familiar scenes. |
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 266. For at Rome the ministers of all the great continental powers exerted themselves to surpass one another in splendor, under the eyes of a people whom the habit of seeing magnificent buildings, decorations, and ceremonies had made fastidious.
1853. Trench, Proverbs, 3. In a fastidious age, indeed, and one of false refinement, they [proverbs] may go nearly or quite out of use among so-called upper classes.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, xvii. 342. In the interior the flesh of the same kind of antelope is so dry and tough, that at last even our black men, though far from being fastidious, refused to eat it.
1877. Black, Green Past., xlii. (1878), 338–9. We had to bear with what composure we could show the stifling odours of this huge and overcrowded compartment, while the society to which we were introduced was not at all fastidious in its language, or in its dress, or in the food which it plentifully ate.
