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STEADFAST
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Firm and dependable especially in loyalty
Example:
unswerving allegiance
Synonyms:
staunch; steadfast; unswerving
Classified under:
Similar:
constant (steadfast in purpose or devotion or affection)
Derivation:
steadfastness (loyalty in the face of trouble and difficulty)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable
Example:
unwavering loyalty
Synonyms:
firm; steadfast; steady; stiff; unbendable; unfaltering; unshakable; unwavering
Classified under:
Similar:
resolute (firm in purpose or belief; characterized by firmness and determination)
Derivation:
steadfastness (steadfast resolution)
Context examples:
No fear of death will darken St. John's last hour: his mind will be unclouded, his heart will be undaunted, his hope will be sure, his faith steadfast.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Five hundred fashionably gowned women turned their heads, so intent and steadfast was Martin's gaze, to see what he was seeing.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
She continued steadfast.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I saw he was of the material from which nature hews her heroes—Christian and Pagan—her lawgivers, her statesmen, her conquerors: a steadfast bulwark for great interests to rest upon; but, at the fireside, too often a cold cumbrous column, gloomy and out of place.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
He saw himself, stripped to the waist, with naked fists, fighting his great fight with Liverpool Red in the forecastle of the Susquehanna; and he saw the bloody deck of the John Rogers, that gray morning of attempted mutiny, the mate kicking in death- throes on the main-hatch, the revolver in the old man's hand spitting fire and smoke, the men with passion-wrenched faces, of brutes screaming vile blasphemies and falling about him—and then he returned to the central scene, calm and clean in the steadfast light, where Ruth sat and talked with him amid books and paintings; and he saw the grand piano upon which she would later play to him; and he heard the echoes of his own selected and correct words, But then, may I not be peculiarly constituted to write?
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
I am not about to be hipped again, David; but I tell you, my good fellow, once more, that it would have been well for me (and for more than me) if I had had a steadfast and judicious father!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
On the screen of his imagination he saw himself and this sweet and beautiful girl, facing each other and conversing in good English, in a room of books and paintings and tone and culture, and all illuminated by a bright light of steadfast brilliance; while ranged about and fading away to the remote edges of the screen were antithetical scenes, each scene a picture, and he the onlooker, free to look at will upon what he wished.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
