ambrosial

Partly from ambrosia and partly from Latin ambrosius, +‎ -al.^[1]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /amˈbɹəʊzɪəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /æmˈbɹoʊʒəl/
• Hyphenation: am‧bro‧si‧al

ambrosial (comparative more ambrosial, superlative most ambrosial)

1. (Greek mythology) Pertaining to or worthy of the gods.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     And whilst he slept she [Venus] over him would spred / Her mantle, colour’d like the starry skyes, / And her soft arme lay underneath his hed, / And with ambrosiall kisses bathe his eyes [...]

2. Succulently sweet or fragrant; balmy, divine.
   • 1607 February 12 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [Barnabe Barnes], The Divils Charter: A Tragædie Conteining the Life and Death of Pope Alexander the Sixt. […], London: […] G[eorge] E[ld] for Iohn Wright, […], published 1607, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, signature E2, verso:

     Thy Chamber vvith Ambroſiall odors breatheth, / Nevv loues and true loues vnto them that entreateth, / And furious Mars made milde his Faulcheon ſheatheth / At thy delicious aſpect: […]

   • 1798 July, Walter Savage Landor, “Book VI”, in Gebir; a Poem, […], London: […] Rivingtons, […], →OCLC, page 57, lines 123–125:

     VVhile thus she spake, / She touched his eye-lashes with libant lip / And breath'd ambrosial odours; […]

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXVIII, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     [T]his young hero, rising from his bed, proceeded to decorate his beautiful person, and shave his ambrosial chin […]

   • 1826, J. S. Byerley, “You Taught Me Love”, in The Universal Songster, Volume 3:

     By your cheek of vermil hue, / By your lip’s ambrosial dew, / By your soft and languid eye, / By your swelling bosom’s sigh, / You taught me love.

• ambrosiac
• ambrosian

• ambrosially
• unambrosial