VICTORIAN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Victorian mean? 

• VICTORIAN (noun)
  The noun VICTORIAN has 1 sense:

1. a person who lived during the reign of Victoria

  Familiarity information: VICTORIAN used as a noun is very rare.

• VICTORIAN (adjective)
  The adjective VICTORIAN has 3 senses:

1. of or relating to Queen Victoria of Great Britain or to the age in which she ruled

2. exaggeratedly proper

3. typical of the moral standards or conduct of the age of Queen Victoria

  Familiarity information: VICTORIAN used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VICTORIAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who lived during the reign of Victoria

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Victorian" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Derivation:

Victorian (of or relating to Queen Victoria of Great Britain or to the age in which she ruled)

• VICTORIAN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or relating to Queen Victoria of Great Britain or to the age in which she ruled

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

Victorian morals

Pertainym:

Victoria (queen of Great Britain and Ireland and empress of India from 1837 to 1901; the last Hanoverian ruler of England (1819-1901))

Victorian age (a period in British history during the reign of Queen Victoria in the 19th century; her character and moral standards restored the prestige of the British monarchy but gave the era a prudish reputation)

Derivation:

Victoria (queen of Great Britain and Ireland and empress of India from 1837 to 1901; the last Hanoverian ruler of England (1819-1901))

Victorian (a person who lived during the reign of Victoria)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Exaggeratedly proper

Synonyms:

priggish; prim; prissy; prudish; puritanical; square-toed; straight-laced; straightlaced; strait-laced; straitlaced; tight-laced; victorian

Context example:

my straitlaced Aunt Anna doesn't approve of my miniskirts

Similar:

proper (marked by suitability or rightness or appropriateness)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Typical of the moral standards or conduct of the age of Queen Victoria

Similar:

nonmodern (not modern; of or characteristic of an earlier time)

 Context examples 

Caulfield Gardens was one of those lines of flat-faced pillared, and porticoed houses which are so prominent a product of the middle Victorian epoch in the West End of London.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Since the Victorian era, diatoms have been known as the "glass houses of the sea" because of their beautiful cell walls made of silicon dioxide, or glass.

(Algae-killing viruses spur nutrient recycling in oceans, National Science Foundation)