hero worship


noun
  1. a profound reverence for great people or their memory.

  2. extravagant or excessive admiration for a personal hero.

Origin of hero worship

1
First recorded in 1765–75

Words Nearby hero worship

Other definitions for hero-worship (2 of 2)

hero-worship
[ heer-oh-wur-ship ]

verb (used with object),he·ro-wor·shiped, he·ro-wor·ship·ing or (especially British) he·ro-wor·shipped, he·ro-wor·ship·ping.
  1. to feel or express hero worship for.

Origin of hero-worship

2
First recorded in 1880–85

Other words from hero-worship

  • he·ro-wor·ship·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use hero worship in a sentence

  • Perhaps he is a little conscious of his charm; if so, it is hardly his fault, for hero-worship has been his lot from boyhood.

    First Plays | A. A. Milne
  • Eric learned a great deal of harm from Upton, and the misapplied hero-worship led to bad results.

    Eric, or Little by Little | Frederic W. Farrar
  • The Homeric age is one which had outgrown ancestor and hero worship, and had not, like the age of the Cyclics, relapsed into it.

    Homer and His Age | Andrew Lang
  • He is for that reason ready also to admire men of action, and is wide open for the influences of hero-worship.

  • hero worship, this, which enlarges one's self through the admiration given to another.

British Dictionary definitions for hero worship

hero worship

noun
  1. admiration for heroes or idealized persons

  2. worship by the ancient Greeks and Romans of heroes

verbhero-worship, -ships, -shipping or -shipped or US -ships, -shiping or -shiped
  1. (tr) to feel admiration or adulation for

Derived forms of hero worship

  • hero-worshipper, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012