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Damocles
[ dam-uh-kleez ]
noun
- a flatterer who, having extolled the happiness of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, was seated at a banquet with a sword suspended over his head by a single hair to show him the perilous nature of that happiness.
Damocles
/ ˈæəˌː /
noun
- classical myth a sycophant forced by Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, to sit under a sword suspended by a hair to demonstrate that being a king was not the happy state Damocles had said it was See also Sword of Damocles
Derived Forms
- ˌٲˈ, adjective
Other Word Forms
- ٲ··· [dam-, uh, -, klee, -, uh, n], adjective
Idioms and Phrases
- sword of Damocles, any situation threatening imminent harm or disaster.
Example Sentences
Hackford recalls feeling the sword of Damocles hanging over his head when he phoned King, who replied, “I wish I’d thought of that.”
Bar charges remained a Sword of Damocles over my head for ten years before they were also dismissed.
She described it as a "sword of Damocles over my head for three long years".
The sword of Damocles hasn't deterred Gaetz's allies from hyping him up for a return to Congress as a House member, as a senato or for a Trump administration post that doesn't require Senate approval.
By that point, the TV veteran had been unemployed for more than six months, and his children’s private school tuitions were looming over him like the sword of Damocles.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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