adjective, noun, verb, -limed, -lim⋅ing.| 1. | elevated or lofty in thought, language, etc.: Paradise Lost is sublime poetry. |
| 2. | impressing the mind with a sense of grandeur or power; inspiring awe, veneration, etc.: Switzerland has sublime scenery. |
| 3. | supreme or outstanding: a sublime dinner. |
| 4. | complete; absolute; utter: sublime stupidity. |
| 5. | Archaic.
|
| 6. | Archaic. raised high; high up. |
| 7. | the sublime,
|
| 8. | to make higher, nobler, or purer. |
| 9. | Chemistry.
|
| 10. | Chemistry. to volatilize from the solid state to a gas, and then condense again as a solid without passing through the liquid state. |

sublime
in literary criticism, grandeur of thought, emotion, and spirit that characterizes great literature. It is the topic of an incomplete treatise, On the Sublime, that was for long attributed to the 3rd-century Greek philosopher Cassius Longinus but now believed to have been written in the 1st century AD by an unknown writer frequently designated Pseudo-Longinus.
Learn more about sublime with a free trial on Britannica.com.