hero worship

hero worship
    n 1: admiration for great men (or their memory)
    

Worship \Wor"ship\, n. [OE. worshipe, wur[eth]scipe, AS.
   weor[eth]scipe; weor[eth] worth + -scipe -ship. See {Worth},
   a., and {-ship}.]
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   1. Excellence of character; dignity; worth; worthiness.
      [Obs.] --Shak.
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            A man of worship and honour.          --Chaucer.
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            Elfin, born of noble state,
            And muckle worship in his native land. --Spenser.
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   2. Honor; respect; civil deference. [Obs.]
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            Of which great worth and worship may be won.
                                                  --Spenser.
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            Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them
            that sit at meat with thee.           --Luke xiv.
                                                  10.
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   3. Hence, a title of honor, used in addresses to certain
      magistrates and others of rank or station.
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            My father desires your worships' company. --Shak.
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   4. The act of paying divine honors to the Supreme Being;
      religious reverence and homage; adoration, or acts of
      reverence, paid to God, or a being viewed as God. "God
      with idols in their worship joined." --Milton.
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            The worship of God is an eminent part of religion,
            and prayer is a chief part of religious worship.
                                                  --Tillotson.
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   5. Obsequious or submissive respect; extravagant admiration;
      adoration.
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            'T is your inky brows, your black silk hair,
            Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream,
            That can my spirits to your worship.  --Shak.
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   6. An object of worship.
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            In attitude and aspect formed to be
            At once the artist's worship and despair.
                                                  --Longfellow.
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   {Devil worship}, {Fire worship}, {Hero worship}, etc. See
      under {Devil}, {Fire}, {Hero}, etc.
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Hero \He"ro\ (h[=e]"r[-o]), n.; pl. {Heroes} (h[=e]"r[=o]z). [F.
   h['e]ros, L. heros, Gr. "h`rws.]
   1. (Myth.) An illustrious man, supposed to be exalted, after
      death, to a place among the gods; a demigod, as Hercules.
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   2. 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.
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            Each man is a hero and oracle to somebody.
                                                  --Emerson.
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   3. 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.
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            The shining quality of an epic hero.  --Dryden.
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   {Hero worship}, extravagant admiration for great men, likened
      to the ancient worship of heroes.
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            Hero worship exists, has existed, and will forever
            exist, universally among mankind.     --Carlyle.
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173 Moby Thesaurus words for "hero worship":
      Amor, Christian love, Druidism, Eros, Parsiism, Platonic love,
      Sabaism, Zoroastrianism, accolade, accord respect to, admiration,
      admire, adoration, adore, adulate, adulation, affection, agape,
      animal worship, apotheosis, apotheosize, appreciate, appreciation,
      approbation, approval, ardency, ardor, attachment, awe, belaud,
      bepraise, bepraisement, bless, blow up, boast of, bodily love,
      brag about, breathless adoration, brotherly love, caritas,
      celebrate, charity, congratulation, conjugal love, consideration,
      courtesy, cry up, defer to, deference, deification, deify,
      demonism, demonolatry, desire, devil worship, devotion, duty,
      eloge, emblazon, encomium, entertain respect for, esteem,
      estimation, eulogium, eulogize, eulogy, exaggerated respect, exalt,
      exaltation, excessive praise, extol, faithful love, fancy, favor,
      fervor, fetishism, fire worship, flame, flatter, flattery,
      fondness, free love, free-lovism, glorification, glorify, glory,
      great respect, heart, heathenism, high regard, hold in esteem,
      hold in reverence, homage, hommage, honor, iconoduly, iconolatry,
      idol worship, idolatrousness, idolatry, idolism, idolization,
      idolize, idolizing, idolodulia, idolomancy, image worship, kudos,
      lasciviousness, laud, laudation, libido, like, liking, lionize,
      lionizing, look up to, love, lovemaking, magnification, magnify,
      make much of, married love, meed of praise, overpraise, paean,
      paganism, panegyric, panegyrize, passion, pay tribute,
      phallic worship, phallicism, physical love, popular regard,
      popularity, porter aux nues, praise, prestige, prize, puff,
      puff up, pyrolatry, regard, respect, revere, reverence,
      reverential regard, salute, sentiment, sex, sexual love, shine,
      snake worship, spiritual love, star worship, sun worship,
      tender feeling, tender passion, think highly of, think much of,
      think well of, tree worship, tribute, truelove, trumpet,
      uxoriousness, value, venerate, veneration, weakness, worship,
      yearning