המשמעות המילונית של המילה "מעולה" היא: של או כמו אות; מתן סימן או אזהרה שסביר שמשהו משמעותי או אסון יקרה; משמעותי או מעיד באופן מבשר רעות. זה יכול גם להתייחס למשהו שהוא בעל חשיבות עצמית או פומפוזי באופן שנועד להרשים אחרים.
The lieutenant, returning from a tour after a bandage, produced from a hidden receptacle of his mind new and portentous oaths suited to the emergency.
Or I was attracted by the passage of wild pigeons from this wood to that, with a slight quivering winnowing sound and carrier haste or from under a rotten stump my hoe turned up a sluggish portentous and outlandish spotted salamander, a trace of Egypt and the Nile, yet our contemporary.
He would delight them equally by his anecdotes of witchcraft, and of the direful omens and portentous sights and sounds in the air, which prevailed in the earlier times of Connecticut and would frighten them woefully with speculations upon comets and shooting stars and with the alarming fact that the world did absolutely turn round, and that they were half the time topsy-turvy!
