funambulatory

English

Adjective

funambulatory (not comparable)

1. Performing in the manner of a tightrope walker.
   • 1728, Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, Volume 1, p. 107, under FUNAMBULUS,^[1]

     In the Floralia, or Ludi Florales, held under Galba, there were funambulatory Elephants, as we are inform’d by Suetonius.

   • 1868, Review of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise, translated by Ellen Frothingham, North American Review, Volume 106, Number 219, April 1868, p. 705,^[2]

     At a time when Gottsched and his compeers seemed hopelessly infected with Gallomania, and the temple of the Muses had degenerated into a funambulatory platform, on which unwieldy Teutons […] were emulating agile Frenchmen in dancing on the tight-rope of pseudo-classicism, Lessing appeared, and with a dramaturgical scourge of small cords drove the mimes from the stage, shifted the scene, and inaugurated a new era for German art and culture.

   • 1921, Philip Sanford Marden, chapter 8, in Sailing South, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, pages 106–107:

     Men walking the streets suddenly staggered as if drunk, and extended their arms involuntarily, as rope-dancers do. One of them said that after this funambulatory experience he was downright seasick and hadn’t felt well since.

2. Narrow, like a tightrope.
   • 1716, Thomas Browne, edited by Samuel Johnson, Christian Morals‎^[3], 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, published 1756, Part I, p. 7:

     Tread softly and circumspectly in this funambulatory track and narrow path of goodness […]

3. Pertaining to tightrope walking

References

• “funambulatory”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.