Adjacent Words

Damocles definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the Greek courtier to Dionysius the Elder who (according to legend) was condemned to sit under a naked sword that was suspended by a hair in order to demonstrate to him that being a king was not the happy state Damocles had said it was (4th century BC)

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Latin, from Greek Damokl?s Date: 1578 a courtier of ancient Syracuse held to have been seated at a banquet beneath a sword hung by a single hair • Damoclean adjective

Britannica Concise

Member of the court of Dionysius the Elder at Syracuse in Sicily. Legend holds that when Damocles spoke in extravagant terms of Dionysius' happiness, the sovereign responded by inviting Damocles to a banquet and seating him beneath a sword suspended by a thread, thereby demonstrating the precarious fortunes of men who hold power.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you say that someone has the Sword of Damocles hanging over their head, you mean that they are in a situation in which something very bad could happen to them at any time. (LITERARY) PHRASE