Abraham
['eibrə,hæm]
Definition
(noun.) the first of the Old Testament patriarchs and the father of Isaac; according to Genesis, God promised to give Abraham's family (the Hebrews) the land of Canaan (the Promised Land); God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son; 'Judaism, Christianity, and Islam each has a special claim on Abraham'.
Checker: Natalia--From WordNet
Examples
- There follows a history of the fathers and founders of the Hebrew nation, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Abraham weighs to Ephron the four hundred shekels of silver which he had agreed to pay for the field of Machpelah. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Damascus dates back anterior to the days of Abraham, and is the oldest city in the world. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Abraham in red going to sacrifice Isaac in blue, and Daniel in yellow cast into a den of green lions, were the most prominent of these. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- This reflection does not, however, abate in the slightest our sense of bereavement in the untimely loss of so good and great a man as Abraham Lincoln. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- New names appear on the records, Lord Brouncker, Sir Robert Moray, John Evelyn, Brereton, Ball, Robert Hooke, and Abraham Cowley. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- This was in the days of the patriarch Abraham. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- We descended to the Plain again, and halted a moment at a well--of Abraham's time, no doubt. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- It inspired a great number of Babylonians and the like to claim Abraham as their father, and thrust their company upon the returning Jews. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Abraham and Moses were strangers in the land, and we are told to entertain strangers. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- There was a frontispiece to the volume, representing Abraham sacrificing Isaac. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- The God of Abraham, says the Bible narrative, promised this smiling land of prosperous cities to him and to his children. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Not a shekel, not a silver penny, not a halfling--so help me the God of Abraham! Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- By Ferguson I mean our dragoman Abraham, of course. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Wells were coeval with Abraham when his servant had the celebrated interview with Rebecca. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
Edited by Greg