Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • An island of eastern Greece in the Aegean Sea near the northwest coast of Anatolia. An important Aeolian settlement, Lesbos was noted for its lyric poets, including Sappho, in the seventh century BC. After occupation by various powers, the island was annexed by Greece in 1913.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun The classical name for the island of Greece in the north-eastern Aegean Sea.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an island of eastern Greece in the eastern Aegean Sea; in antiquity it was famous for lyric poetry

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek Λέσβος (Lesbos).

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Examples

  • The name Lesbos apparently comes from the patron god of the island, who was the son of the Thessalonian hero Lapithos, or alternatively comes from the word for lush vegetation.

    Dimitris Lambrou, the Proud Lesbian Man : Law is Cool 2008

  • Canning and his tricks, and his abstraction of L.14,000 sterling from the public treasury to defray the expenses of his shameful flight to Lesbos, that is Lisbon. [

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 53, No. 330, April 1843 Various

  • He remained there three years and even married the adopted daughter of the tyrant, but when Hermias was murdered, he retreated to the nearby island of Lesbos to teach and study the local flora and fauna.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • While he was besieging the town of Mytilene on Lesbos, Memnon suddenly fell ill and died.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • Hegelochus brought with him in chains Aristonicus and all the aristocratic leaders of Chios and Lesbos who had sided with the Great King, but he apologized that Pharnabazus had somehow escaped while they were docked at Cos.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • Instead, he sent back his old friend and trusted cavalry commander Erigyius of Lesbos along with a force of more than six thousand men, including his Persian companion Artabazus, to confront Satibarzanes.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • The operation had gone so smoothly that one of the Greek allies of the Persians, Aristonicus of Methymna on the island of Lesbos, was captured after he sailed into the harbor at Chios thinking it was still in Persian hands.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • Memnon had taken the fleet north from Cos after his defeat at Halicarnassus and seized the island of Chios, then sailed to Lesbos, which he captured except for the chief town of Mytilene.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • Chares: Chamberlain of Alexander from the Greek island of Lesbos who wrote a long and colorful history of court life under the king.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

  • The leaders from Lesbos were sent home to be judged by their own people, who subsequently tortured and executed them.

    Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011

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