Adam (adam)

[L. Adam (and Adamus ), quence of the fall. Consideration like an angel came, And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him. Shak., Hen. V., 1. 1. 31. A serjeant or bailiff. This sense rests chiefly on the following quotation, and is explained by the commentators as a reference to the fact that the buff worn by the bailiff resembled the native "buff" of our first parent. Bp. Hall, Occas. Med., p. 52. The adamant... is such an enemy to the magnet. Leonard us, Mirr. Stones, p. 63. ( N. E. D. ) 2. In general, any substance of impenetrable or surpa ing hardne ; that which is impregnable to any force. [It is chiefly a rhetorical or poetical word.] As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead. Ezek. iii. 9. But who would force the soul, tilts with a straw Against a champion cased in adamant . Words worth, Persecution of Covenanters, iii. 7.