Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TRAG'IC, or TRAG'IC-AL, a. [L. tragicus; Fr. tragique; It. tragico.]

1. Pertaining to tragedy; of the nature or character of tragedy; as, a tragic poem; a tragic play or representation. Shak.
2. Fatal to life; mournful; sorrowful; calamitous; as, the tragic scenes of Hayti; the tragic horrors of Scio and Missilonghi; the tragical fate of the Greeks.
3. Mournful; expressive of tragedy, the loss of life, or of sorrow. I now must change those notes to tragic. Milton.