idol

Definition

A graven image or representation of anything that is revered, or believed to convey spiritual power.

Etymology

From Middle English ydole, from Old French idole, from Latin idolum, from Ancient Greek εἴδωλον (eídōlon, “image, idol”), from εἶδος (eîdos, “form”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéydos (“seeing, image”), from *weyd- (“to see”). Doublet of aidoru, eidolon, and idolum and related to idea.

Example Sentences

• "20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship deuils, and idoles of golde, and siluer, and brasse, and stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor heare, nor walke: 21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."
• "Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines."
• "There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Kathmandu, There's a little marble cross below the town; There's a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew, And the Yellow God forever gazes down."