Definition of "Gordian"

Gordian

adjective
comparative more Gordian, superlative most Gordian
1. Of or pertaining to Gordium (now Yassihüyük in Turkey), capital of Phrygia.
2. Of or pertaining to Gordius, king of Phrygia
3. Of the Gordian knot.
4. Twisted; convoluted; tied as a knot.
  Quotations
  […] cloſe the Serpent ſly,Inſinuating, wove with Gordian twineHis braided train, […]
  1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 347–349
  […] he found a palpitating snake, / Bright, and cirque-couchant in a dusky brake. / She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue, / Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue; […]
  1819, John Keats, “Lamia”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, part I, page 6
  When you put it that way it was so simple, so self-explanatory, so beautiful, so obvious that what had seemed the most Gordian problem was instantly almost mundane, and its elegance was its own proof.
  2005, Lance Parkin, The Gallifrey Chronicles, page 205
proper noun
1. Gordianus, name of three Roman emperors.