Definition of "hieroglyphic"

I must say, that, at the coronation, there was little vestige left as possible "of the charms that pleased a king." "She looked," Lady Mary Wortley said, "like an Egyptian mummy, wrought with hieroglyphics of gold."

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Gaieties and Absurdities. Lady Marchmont to Sir Jasper Meredith.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 44

The hieroglyphics or symbols, however, were reversed, just as though they had been pressed on wax.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887

Above all, the 48-page timetables of the new service, which have been distributed free at every station in the scheme, are a model to the rest of B.R. For the first time on British Railways, so far as we are aware, a substantial timetable has been produced, not only without a single footnote but also devoid of all wearisome asterisks, stars, letter suffixes and other hieroglyphics.

1960 December, “The Glasgow Suburban Electrification is opened”, in Trains Illustrated, page 714