Adonis

[ uh-don-is, uh-doh-nis ]

/ əˈdɒn ɪs, əˈdoʊ nɪs /

noun

Classical Mythology. a youth slain by a wild boar but permitted by Zeus to pass four months every year in the lower world with Persephone, four with Aphrodite, and four wherever he chose.

a very handsome young man.

Origin of Adonis

1615–25 for def 2

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for adonis

Cyrus tweeted a series of photos posing with a Hand of Adonis sex toy on a a plane.
Ke$ha Leaves Rehab, Miley Cyrus Poses With Sex Toy|Culture Team|March 7, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Brad Pitt, even in an impromptu cell phone photo, manages to look like Adonis on earth.
Ellen's Epic Oscar Selfie Is Now the Most Retweeted Tweet Ever|Kevin Fallon|March 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The latest Adonis cast in the part is 31-year-old model-turned-actor Jamie Dornan.
Meet Jamie Dornan: ’50 Shades of Grey's' New Christian Grey|Kevin Fallon|October 23, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Then Calvin Klein aired a two-minute commercial featuring an Adonis flexing in underwear.
Oscars, the Super Bowl for Women & Other People’s Super Bowls|Kevin Fallon|February 22, 2013|DAILY BEAST

For a time he wrote criticism for Mawaqif, a publication founded by the Syrian poet (and perennial Nobel also-ran) Adonis.
Elias Khoury: Profile of the Essential Arab Novelist Today|Jacob Silverman|August 3, 2012|DAILY BEAST
The most famous as well as the most powerful and original of Bion's poems remaining to us is the threnody upon Adonis.
Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 4|Charles Dudley Warner
A vast amphitheatre of rocks, rising almost perpendicularly hundreds of feet, abruptly closes the valley of the Adonis.
A King of Tyre|James M. Ludlow
A kind of Adonis to look at, beautiful eyes and all that sort of thing.
The Phantom Lover|Ruby M. Ayres
Have we never exhibited the photograph of our Adonis, Gladys?'
The Guinea Stamp|Annie S. Swan
In the latter view, the fable of Adonis is only applicable to the celestial Venus.
The Lusiad|Lus de Cames

British Dictionary definitions for adonis

Adonis

/ (əˈdəʊnɪs) /

noun

Greek myth a handsome youth loved by Aphrodite. Killed by a wild boar, he was believed to spend part of the year in the underworld and part on earth, symbolizing the vegetative cycle

a handsome young man

Word Origin for Adonis

C16: from Latin, via Greek Adōnis from Phoenician adōni my lord, a title of the god Tammuz; related to Hebrew Adonai

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

Culture definitions for adonis

Adonis

In classical mythology, an extremely beautiful boy who was loved by Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

Note

By extension, an “Adonis” is any handsome young man.