Heathcliffian

English

Etymology

From the character in Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights.

Adjective

Heathcliffian (comparative more Heathcliffian, superlative most Heathcliffian)

1. Having characteristics similar to the character Heathcliff, especially dark, brooding, intense, tortured, possessive, aggressive, and/or uncivilized.
   • 1993, Harold Bloom, Heathcliff, page 54:

     Hindley occupies a place at the Heathcliffian end of the spectrum and, like Heathcliff, is both aggressive and competitive, although insecurely so.

   • 2000, John Bishop Ballem, John Ballem, Manchineel, →ISBN, page 152:

     I guess you could call him handsome in a dark, Heathcliffian way.

   • 2014, Suzanne Ruthven, Charnel House Blues: The Vampyre's Tale, →ISBN:

     The Grand Tour introduced the young bloods of England — whose acquaintance I made in large numbers — to crumbling architecture and Gothic ruins and, as a result, on their return they transformed their country estates into “a cross between the House of Usher and Wuthering Heights, a Heathcliffian blend of artificial mountains, lonely moors and decayed ruins.

   • 2018, Kate Atkinson, Transcription, →ISBN, page 70:

     Perry himself was not entirely without Heathcliffian qualities — the absence of levity, the ruthless disregard for a girl's comfort, the way he had of scrutinizing you as if you were a puzzle to be solved.