sibyl

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sib·yl

(sĭb′əl)

1. One of a number of women regarded as oracles or prophets by the ancient Greeks and Romans.

2. A woman prophet.

[Middle English sibile, from Old French, from Latin Sibylla, from Greek Sibulla.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sibyl

(ˈsɪbɪl)

1. (Classical Myth & Legend) (in ancient Greece and Rome) any of a number of women believed to be oracles or prophetesses, one of the most famous being the sibyl of Cumae, who guided Aeneas through the underworld

2. (Alternative Belief Systems) a witch, fortune-teller, or sorceress

[C13: ultimately from Greek Sibulla, of obscure origin]

sibylline sibyllic, sibylic adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

sib•yl

(ˈsɪb əl)

n.

1. any of a group of semilegendary women of the ancient world, who possessed prophetic powers.

2. a female prophet or fortune-teller.

[1250–1300; Middle English Sibil < Medieval Latin Sibilla < Greek Síbylla]

sibyl

Ancient Greece and Rome. a woman with oracular or prophetic powers, the most celebrated being that of Cumae. — sibyllic, — sibylic, sibylline, adj.

sibyl

noun

A person who foretells future events by or as if by supernatural means:

augur, auspex, diviner, foreteller, haruspex, prophesier, prophet, prophetess, seer, soothsayer, vaticinator.

Translations

Sibyla

Sibylle

sibila

sibylle

Sibylla

Sibyl

[ˈsɪbɪl] N → Sibila

sibyl

[ˈsɪbɪl] N → sibila f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sibyl

n (lit) → Sibylle f; (fig) → Prophetin f, → Weissagerin f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

sibyl

[ˈsɪbɪl] n → sibilla

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

Your voice and the voice of Sibyl Vane are two things that I shall never forget.

And now tell me-- reach me the matches, like a good boy--thanks--what are your actual relations with Sibyl Vane?"

"Upon my word, Dorian, Miss Sibyl knows how to pay compliments."

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The sibyl cry'd, and from the grove abstain.--DRYDEN.

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Let her appear, and speak for herself--the wild and weird grandmother of gentle little Mary; the Sibyl of modern times, known, far and wide, in our part of Suffolk, as Dame Dermody.

The Sibyl laid her dry, fleshless hand on my shoulder, and forced me roughly back into the chair from which I had just risen.

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The library looked tranquil enough as I entered it, and the Sibyl-- if Sibyl she were--was seated snugly enough in an easy-chair at the chimney-corner.

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Hither she had been led by two of her disguised ravishers, and on being thrust into the little cell, she found herself in the presence of an old sibyl, who kept murmuring to herself a Saxon rhyme, as if to beat time to the revolving dance which her spindle was performing upon the floor.

``Thy life, minion?'' answered the sibyl; ``what would taking thy life pleasure them?

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Rebecca, Adam thought, as he took off his hat and saluted the pretty panorama,--Rebecca, with her tall slenderness, her thoughtful brow, the fire of young joy in her face, her fillet of dark braided hair, might have been a young Muse or Sibyl; and the flowery hayrack, with its freight of blooming girlhood, might have been painted as an allegorical picture of The Morning of Life.

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It was like the golden branch that gained AEneas and the Sibyl admittance into Hades.

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I turn, without shrinking, from cloud-borne angels, from prophets, sibyls, and heroic warriors, to an old woman bending over her flower-pot, or eating her solitary dinner, while the noonday light, softened perhaps by a screen of leaves, falls on her mob-cap, and just touches the rim of her spinning-wheel, and her stone jug, and all those cheap common things which are the precious necessaries of life to her--or I turn to that village wedding, kept between four brown walls, where an awkward bridegroom opens the dance with a high-shouldered, broad-faced bride, while elderly and middle-aged friends look on, with very irregular noses and lips, and probably with quart-pots in their hands, but with an expression of unmistakable contentment and goodwill.

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Noun	1.	sibyl - a woman who tells fortunes fortune teller, fortuneteller - a person who foretells your personal future
	2.	sibyl - (ancient Rome) a woman who was regarded as an oracle or prophet Ellas, Greece, Hellenic Republic - a republic in southeastern Europe on the southern part of the Balkan peninsula; known for grapes and olives and olive oil capital of Italy, Eternal City, Italian capital, Rome, Roma - capital and largest city of Italy; on the Tiber; seat of the Roman Catholic Church; formerly the capital of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire oracle, prophesier, prophet, vaticinator, seer - an authoritative person who divines the future antiquity - the historic period preceding the Middle Ages in Europe