IDOLATROUS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does idolatrous mean? 

• IDOLATROUS (adjective)
  The adjective IDOLATROUS has 2 senses:

1. relating to or practicing idolatry

2. blindly or excessively devoted or adoring

  Familiarity information: IDOLATROUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IDOLATROUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relating to or practicing idolatry

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

idolatrous worship

Pertainym:

idolatry (the worship of idols; the worship of physical objects or images as gods)

Derivation:

idolatry (the worship of idols; the worship of physical objects or images as gods)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Blindly or excessively devoted or adoring

Similar:

loving (feeling or showing love and affection)

 Context examples 

It is odd that a thing which I have been taught to regard with disfavour and as idolatrous should in a time of loneliness and trouble be of help.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Ships are sent with the first opportunity; the natives driven out or destroyed; their princes tortured to discover their gold; a free license given to all acts of inhumanity and lust, the earth reeking with the blood of its inhabitants: and this execrable crew of butchers, employed in so pious an expedition, is a modern colony, sent to convert and civilize an idolatrous and barbarous people!

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

This, par parenthese, will be thought cool language by persons who entertain solemn doctrines about the angelic nature of children, and the duty of those charged with their education to conceive for them an idolatrous devotion: but I am not writing to flatter parental egotism, to echo cant, or prop up humbug; I am merely telling the truth.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I did not know what to do, for, as an English Churchman, I have been taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet it seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in such a state of mind.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)