shooting stars
Preserved but no longer current.
Incandescent meteors shoot- ing across the sky, formerly, like comets, fabled to presage disaster — A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets: As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “shooting stars” mean?
Incandescent meteors shoot- ing across the sky, formerly, like comets, fabled to presage disaster — A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets: As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Is “shooting stars” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.