Waldo
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of waldo
C20: named after Waldo F. Jones, inventor in a science-fiction story by Robert Heinlein
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s standards of literary criticism, like his philosophy, are focused on realism, felt experience and humanity.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 24, 2026
As Ralph Waldo Emerson saw it, Brown’s death on the scaffold turned him into a “new Saint awaiting his martyrdom, and who, if he shall suffer, will make the gallows glorious like the cross.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 9, 2025
While the phrase originates from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn” and refers specifically to the Battle of Concord, the first shots of the Revolutionary War were actually fired earlier that day in Lexington.
From Slate • Apr. 19, 2025
The best definition of the American Dream I’ve ever encountered came from one of the founders of The Atlantic, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
From Salon • Mar. 26, 2025
He found the stricken rider distracting himself from his pain by firing off aphorisms from Ralph Waldo Emerson—“Old Waldo”—at the nurses.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.