Definitions

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

  • noun Plural form of lar.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • There is also, he said, a lingering belief in lares.

    High Albania Mary Edith 1909

  • In the mean time, as I am at least one of the principal heroes of my own politics, being secure of any invasion, I am going to leave all my lares, that is, all my antiquities, household gods and pagods, and take a journey into Siberia for six weeks, where my father's grace of

    The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 1 Horace Walpole 1757

  • &c. these formed a kind of aristocratic order, who were distinguished from the minor gods, or from the multitude of ethnic divinities, who were entirely local; that is to say, were reverenced only in particular countries, or by individuals; as in Rome, where every citizen had his familiar spirit, called lares; and household god, called penates.

    The System of Nature, Volume 2 Paul Henri Thiry Holbach 1756

  • We read of earthquakes in the tropics and at the ends of the earth with commiseration, it is true, yet with the fond belief that the ground on which we have built is so firm that our own 'lares' and 'penates' are in no danger of being shaken down.

    Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill Winston Churchill 1909

  • We read of earthquakes in the tropics and at the ends of the earth with commiseration, it is true, yet with the fond belief that the ground on which we have built is so firm that our own 'lares' and 'penates' are in no danger of being shaken down.

    A Modern Chronicle — Volume 03 Winston Churchill 1909

  • We read of earthquakes in the tropics and at the ends of the earth with commiseration, it is true, yet with the fond belief that the ground on which we have built is so firm that our own 'lares' and 'penates' are in no danger of being shaken down.

    A Modern Chronicle — Complete Winston Churchill 1909

  • At the feet of the 'lares', those household deities who were supposed to protect the abodes of men, the figure of a barking dog was often placed.

    The Dog William Youatt 1811

  • There they all are -- Marilyn and Elvis and Jackie together with Oprah and Brangelina and Barack -- a little company of domesticated deities standing in for the lares and penates who sheltered the households of ancient Rome.

    Lewis Lapham: Domesticated Deities: About Messiahs Come to Redeem Our Country, Not Govern It Lewis Lapham 2010

  • There they all are -- Marilyn and Elvis and Jackie together with Oprah and Brangelina and Barack -- a little company of domesticated deities standing in for the lares and penates who sheltered the households of ancient Rome.

    Lewis Lapham: Domesticated Deities: About Messiahs Come to Redeem Our Country, Not Govern It Lewis Lapham 2010

  • There they all are -- Marilyn and Elvis and Jackie together with Oprah and Brangelina and Barack -- a little company of domesticated deities standing in for the lares and penates who sheltered the households of ancient Rome.

    Lewis Lapham: Domesticated Deities: About Messiahs Come to Redeem Our Country, Not Govern It Lewis Lapham 2010

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