English

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Etymology

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From Middle English strengthful, strenkyþfull, equivalent to strength +‎ -ful.

Adjective

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strengthful (comparative more strengthful, superlative most strengthful)

  1. (archaic) Full of strength; strong; having strength; powerful.
    • 1909, Marshall Pinckney Wilder, The ten books of the merrymakers:
      I couldn't bring myself to say 'No, Ethelinda, I can not be yours because my heart is set on a strengthful damsel with raven locks and eyes of coal, with lips a shade less cherry than thine, and a cheek more like the apple than the peach, [...]'
    • 1913, Philo Adams Otis, The First Presbyterian church, 1833-1913:
      But they were both fervent and sincere and breathed of a hopeful, a strengthful, and a trustful spirit.
    • 1917, George Washington Truett, James Britton Cranfill, A Quest for Souls:
      The longer that sin is indulged, the mightier, the more strengthful, the more binding does it become in a human life.

Antonyms

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Derived terms

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