visionary

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Having vision or foresight.

   • No more theſe ſeenes my meditation aid, / Or lull to reſt the viſionary mind.
2. 2

   Imaginary or illusory.

   • I wrapp’d myself in grandeur then, And donn’d a visionary crown— Yet it was not that Fantasy Had thrown her mantle over me— But that, among the rabble—men, Lion ambition is chain’d down— […]
   • To many, the visionary hope which is born of the imagination may seem the very mockery of nothing. We cannot imagine what we have never experienced.
3. 3

   Prophetic or revelatory.

   • Here frequent, at the viſionary hour, / When muſing midnight reigns or ſilent noon, / Angelic harps are in full concert heard, / And voiced chaunting from the wood-crown’d hill, / The deepening dale, or inmoſt ſilvan glade[…]
4. ›+ 4 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Idealistic or utopian.

      • a visionary scheme or project
   2. 5

      Someone who has visions

      Someone who has visions; a seer.

   3. 6

      An impractical dreamer.

      • In a military sense Russia is defenceless, and we all supposed it a proof that they were mere visionaries when they started negotiations by insisting upon not surrendering any Russian territory to the Germans.
      • Along with the good planners there are lots of wild-eyed visionaries who don’t relate ideas to real-life practicalities.
   4. 7

      Someone who has creative and positive ideas about the future.

      • Robertson was finally asked to step down at the end of 1961. His successor would be Dr Beeching, who was seen as both visionary and axeman.

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