Draconical

Draconical (comparative more Draconical, superlative most Draconical)

1. Alternative letter-case form of draconical (“very severe or strict; draconian”).
   • 1657, [Thomas Aylesbury], “An Historical Relation of the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England Concerning Confession, and the Practice Thereof by Some of the Chief Members in the Same”, in A Treatise of the Confession of Sinne, […], London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond] for Andr[ew] Crook, […], →OCLC, “Of Penitential Confession” section, page 329:

     And in a Parliament held at Weſtminſter was eſtabliſhed (a) the act of the ſix articles, which was named the bloudy ſtatute, and the whip of ſix ſtrings; which drew ſo much bloud upon poor Chriſtians, and whereof Auricular Confeſſion was one of the ſtrings. The procurer of that Draconical law, together with the occaſion thereof is particularly deſcribed by our Eccleſiaſtical Annaliſt Mr John Fox; whoever was the chief doer therein, Eccleſiaftical perſons were the chief ſufferers.

   • 1853 November 4, Ed[itor], “Foreign Intelligence”, in The Jewish Chronicle, volume X, number 5 (394 overall), London, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 39, column 1:

     No, these are not imaginary grievances so sneeringly alluded to by the above (liberal and Christian?) correspondent, but real grievances, which penetrate to the hearts and souls of the sufferers, and cry shame on the land calling itself Christian, which can perpetuate or permit such Draconical and inhuman, and, above all, unchristian laws.

   • 1857 July 31, [Alexandre Auguste] Ledru Rollin, quotee, “Ledru Rollin and Louis Napoleon”, in Butler’s South Bucks Free Press, Wycombe and Maidenhead Journal, and Weekly Advertiser for the Wycombe Railway District, volume I, number 33, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, →OCLC, page [2], column 5:

     But there is no question of politics, I am told, but of murder. Of murder? Indeed! Where, then, was murder committed? Where was it even attempted? The accusation itself dares not utter the word of a ‘commencement of execution.[’] What they talk of is a plot, a conspiracy (complot), a different thing altogether, since the most Draconical law has embodied the principle that, as long as no real attempt is made, the conspirators may have altered their mind.

   • 1924, The Communist Review, volume 5, London: Communist Party of Great Britain, →OCLC, page 106, column 2:

     At the opening of Parliament and the coming to power of Zaghloul, a Draconical law was promulgated, essentially directed against the workers’ organisations. Whilst the country as a whole directed all its forces towards liberty and independence from the English yoke, this law denies the right of the workers to meet in defence of their elementary interests, and interdicts the most sacred right of the workers, viz.: the right to strike.