Faust

[ foust ]

noun

1. Jo·hann [yoh, -hahn], c1480–c1538, German magician, alchemist, and astrologer.
2. the chief character of a medieval legend, represented as selling his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power.
3. (italics) a tragedy by Goethe (Part 1, 1808; Part 2, 1832).
4. (italics) an opera (1859) by Charles Gounod.

Faust

/ ˈfaʊstəs; faʊst /

noun

1. German legend a magician and alchemist who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power

Faust

1. A legendary sixteenth-century magician and practitioner of alchemy , who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for youth, knowledge, and power. Christopher Marlowe, a sixteenth-century English poet, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote famous plays about him.

Notes

A “Faustian” bargain is one in which a person is willing to make extreme sacrifices for power or knowledge without considering the ultimate cost.

Example Sentences

Unfortunately, as Faust told me, “there’s no one cookbook for how to vet an idea and how to say when we’re done.”

From FiveThirtyEight

No, answered Faust; she suspected that Harvard was no different.

From The Daily Beast

Tilghman said she asked her peer, President Drew Gilpin Faust of Harvard, if she was surprised by what they found at Princeton.

From The Daily Beast

Once, when a boy, he had seen Henry Irving in Faust; he saw the devils on the haunted mountain; he heard their hideous cries.

From Project Gutenberg

There is a passage where Faust, in his most discontented mood, falls foul of history—in his talk to Wagner, if I am not mistaken.

From Project Gutenberg

Though "Faust" did not strike the public very much at first, it is the greatest theatrical success I have ever had.

From Project Gutenberg

Barbot sang the difficult part of Faust like the great musician he is.

From Project Gutenberg

The deficiencies we have indicated in Mr. Taylor's work are more visible in the second part of 'Faust' than in the first.

From Project Gutenberg