visionaryadj/ˈvɪʒn̩(ə)ɹi/

• 1

  Having vision or foresight.

  • No more theſe ſeenes my meditation aid, / Or lull to reſt the viſionary mind.
• 2

  Imaginary or illusory.

  • I wrapp’d myself in grandeur then, And donn’d a visionary crown— Yet it was not that Fantasy Had thrown her mantle over me— But that, among the rabble—men, Lion ambition is chain’d down— […]
  • To many, the visionary hope which is born of the imagination may seem the very mockery of nothing. We cannot imagine what we have never experienced.
• 3

  Prophetic or revelatory.

  • Here frequent, at the viſionary hour, / When muſing midnight reigns or ſilent noon, / Angelic harps are in full concert heard, / And voiced chaunting from the wood-crown’d hill, / The deepening dale, or inmoſt ſilvan glade[…]
• 4

  Idealistic or utopian.

  • a visionary scheme or project
  • I confeſs, the Merit of this Candour and Condeſcenſion is very much leſſened ; becauſe your Lordſhip hardly leaves us Room to offer our good Wiſhes ; removing all our Difficulties, and ſupplying our Wants, faſter than the moſt viſionary Projector can adjuſt his Schemes.

visionarynoun/ˈvɪʒn̩(ə)ɹi/

• 1

  Someone who has visions; a seer.

• 2

  An impractical dreamer.

  • For seven years [Christopher Columbus] begged persistently for aid, but in vain. He was looked upon as a visionary, and the very boys in the street mocked him as a lunatic. At length he was permitted to lay his plans before a committee of learned men, but only to have them ridiculed, the council dismissing him as a foolish enthusiast.
  • In a military sense Russia is defenceless, and we all supposed it a proof that they were mere visionaries when they started negotiations by insisting upon not surrendering any Russian territory to the Germans.
• 3

  Someone who has creative and positive ideas about the future.

  • Robertson was finally asked to step down at the end of 1961. His successor would be Dr Beeching, who was seen as both visionary and axeman.