PRODIGY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does prodigy mean? 

• PRODIGY (noun)
  The noun PRODIGY has 3 senses:

1. an unusually gifted or intelligent (young) person; someone whose talents excite wonder and admiration

2. a sign of something about to happen

3. an impressive or wonderful example of a particular quality

  Familiarity information: PRODIGY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRODIGY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An unusually gifted or intelligent (young) person; someone whose talents excite wonder and admiration

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

she is a chess prodigy

Hypernyms ("prodigy" is a kind of...):

brain; brainiac; Einstein; genius; mastermind (someone who has exceptional intellectual ability and originality)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "prodigy"):

boy wonder (an extremely talented young male person)

child prodigy; infant prodigy; wonder child (a prodigy whose talents are recognized at an early age)

girl wonder (an extremely talented young female person)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A sign of something about to happen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

omen; portent; presage; prodigy; prognostic; prognostication

Context example:

he looked for an omen before going into battle

Hypernyms ("prodigy" is a kind of...):

augury; foretoken; preindication; sign (an event that is experienced as indicating important things to come)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "prodigy"):

auspice (a favorable omen)

foreboding (an unfavorable omen)

death knell (an omen of death or destruction)

Derivation:

prodigious (of momentous or ominous significance)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An impressive or wonderful example of a particular quality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

the Marines are expected to perform prodigies of valor

Hypernyms ("prodigy" is a kind of...):

example; exemplar; good example; model (something to be imitated)

Derivation:

prodigious (so great in size or force or extent as to elicit awe)

 Context examples 

He is generally thought a fine young man, but do not expect a prodigy.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

"Most remarkable children I ever saw. Which is which?" and Laurie bent like a well-sweep to examine the prodigies.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

That a man whom he had come to regard as a machine for tying cravats and brewing chocolate should suddenly develop fiery human passions was indeed a prodigy.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Or, if you shall so prefer to choose, a new province of knowledge and new avenues to fame and power shall be laid open to you, here, in this room, upon the instant; and your sight shall be blasted by a prodigy to stagger the unbelief of Satan.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

My principal endeavour was to learn the language, which my master (for so I shall henceforth call him), and his children, and every servant of his house, were desirous to teach me; for they looked upon it as a prodigy, that a brute animal should discover such marks of a rational creature.

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

They performed prodigies of valor.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I told him all I knew, but he would have believed anything I might have taken it into my head to impart to him; for he had a profound veneration for my abilities, and informed his wife in my hearing, on that very occasion, that I was a young Roeshus—by which I think he meant prodigy.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He had lived life, and seen things, and performed that prodigy of prodigies, namely, the turning of his back upon his own people, and, in so far as it was possible for an Indian, becoming a white man even in his mental processes.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I hope you will be pleased with my son; but you must not expect a prodigy.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I looked there came, I thought, a change—he seemed to swell—his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter—and the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arms raised to shield me from that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)