a. arch. [f. as prec. + -FUL. The formation was prob. first suggested by the sound of FESTIVAL a.; cf. FESTYFUL.]
1. Occupied in or addicted to feasting; of the nature of feasting; festive, † Feastful day: originally = festival day, but in late examples the adj. has the general pense.
a. 1440. Found. St. Bartholomew’s, II. i. 35. Whan the goldyne path of the son reducid to vs the desirid ioyes of festfull celebrite.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 49. Upon a festful day Clepyd of the temple the dedycacyoun.
1553. Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 75*. The feastful day of the Epiphanye.
1645. Milton, Sonnet ix. 12.
| Thou, when the Bridegroom with his feastfull friends | |
| Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night. | |
| Ibid. (1671), Samson, 1741. | |
| The virgins also shall, on feastful days, | |
| Visit his tomb with flowers. |
1725. Pope, Odyss., I. 116.
| Who crowd his palace, and with lawless power | |
| His herds and flocks in feastful rites devour. | |
| Ibid., IV. 900. | |
| With vast applause the sentence all approve; | |
| They rise, and to the feastful hall remove. |
1849. J. Sterling, Cœur de Lion, in Frazer’s Mag., XXXIX., April, 416.
| His aim was this; for this he bade to smile | |
| The feastful city with all joy’s excesses. |
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., iv. 346.
| So fell the noisy day to feastful night, | |
| For sleep was slow to hush the new delight | |
| Of the freed folk. |
2. Filled with feasting, full of food and wine.
1810. Mary Lamb, Poems, Salome. The feastful monarch’s heart was fired.
