Hero
['hɪərəʊ] or ['hɪro]
Definition
(noun.) the principal character in a play or movie or novel or poem.
(noun.) (Greek mythology) priestess of Aphrodite who killed herself when her lover Leander drowned while trying to swim the Hellespont to see her.
(noun.) (classical mythology) a being of great strength and courage celebrated for bold exploits; often the offspring of a mortal and a god.
(noun.) a man distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength; 'RAF pilots were the heroes of the Battle of Britain'.
(noun.) Greek mathematician and inventor who devised a way to determine the area of a triangle and who described various mechanical devices (first century).
Editor: Olaf--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) An illustrious man, supposed to be exalted, after death, to a place among the gods; a demigod, as Hercules.
(n.) A man of distinguished valor or enterprise in danger, or fortitude in suffering; a prominent or central personage in any remarkable action or event; hence, a great or illustrious person.
(n.) The principal personage in a poem, story, and the like, or the person who has the principal share in the transactions related; as Achilles in the Iliad, Ulysses in the Odyssey, and Aeneas in the Aeneid.
Typist: Silvia
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Brave man.[2]. Principal character.
Typed by Brian
Synonyms and Antonyms
[See CHAMPION]
Checked by Gardner
Definition
n. a man of distinguished bravery: any illustrious person: the principal figure in any history or work of fiction: (orig.) a demigod:—fem. Heroine (her′ō-in).—adj. Herō′ic becoming a hero: courageous: illustrious: daring rash.—n. a heroic verse: (pl.) extravagant phrases bombast.—adj. Herō′ical.—adv. Herō′ically—(Milt.) Herō′icly.—ns. Herō′icalness Herō′icness.—adjs. Herō′icomic -al consisting of a mixture of heroic and comic: designating the high burlesque.—ns. Her′oism the qualities of a hero: courage: boldness; Hē′roship the state of being a hero; Hē′ro-wor′ship the worship of heroes: excessive admiration of great men.—Heroic age the semi-mythical period of Greek history when the heroes or demigods were represented to have lived among men; Heroic medicines such as either kill or cure; Heroic size in sculpture larger than life but less than colossal; Heroic verse the style of verse in which the exploits of heroes are celebrated (in classical poetry the hexameter; in English and German the iambic of ten syllables; in French the alexandrine).
Edited by Alison
Examples
- He was the hero of her imagination, the image carved by love in the unchanged texture of her heart. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- As if it were Cock Robin, the hero of the ballad, and Mr Venus were the sparrow with his bow and arrow, and Mr Wegg were the fly with his little eye. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- A sort of Byronic hero--an amorous conspirator, it strikes me. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- De Hamal is an unutterable puppy, besides being a very white-livered hero. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Her hero himself only half understood her. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Then does this man resemble Margrave, the hero of the book? Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- For as to secrecy, Henry is quite the hero of an old romance, and glories in his chains. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- He would abandon a hero's or a martyr's end gladly. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- There, and through it all, my dear physician was a hero. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- That's all it is, Gerald, my young hero. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- And in ages to come we will reverence them and kneel before their sepulchres as at the graves of heroes. Plato. The Republic.
- The days of Homer were his ideal, when a man was chief of an army of heroes, or spent his years in wonderful Odyssey. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Enough of gods and heroes;--what shall we say about men? Plato. The Republic.
- Under a series of wise men and heroes they wage a generally unsuccessful and never very united warfare against their enemies. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- With heroes of many nations. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- And truly is he so spoken of, said the Grand Master; in our valour only we are not degenerated from our predecessors, the heroes of the Cross. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- All your subjects, Justinian, are making heroes of them, especially the women, much to the dismay of the men of Melnos. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Who are your heroes? Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- And, after all, authors' heroines are almost as good as authoresses' heroes. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- What fine heroes you are yourselves! Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
Editor: Noreen