1505–15; < Latin Penātēs, akin to penus stock of provisions
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The most prominent and revered of them all were the Lares and Penates.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
There were also public Lares and Penates, who did for the city what the others did for the family.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
Every Roman family had a Lar, who was the spirit of an ancestor, and several Penates, gods of the hearth and guardians of the storehouse.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
Making all allowance for the removal of the Penates of its late occupants, it is still obvious that these two luxurious wrens occupied but a small portion of this eagle's nest.
From From the Oak to the Olive A Plain record of a Pleasant Journey by Howe, Julia Ward
Into the trunk went most of her clothes; some of her toilet articles; her half-dozen books; her stationery; all her slender Lares and Penates.
From Out of the Air by Gillmore, Inez Haynes
In addition, the penates, figurines of household gods, were put on the dining table during meals and worshipped as protectors of the home.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Her lares and penates range from Ella Fitzgerald to Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee.
From Time Magazine Archive
Her lares and penates were being attacked, and she had come from the heart of her solitude to defend them.
From Lost Man's Lane A Second Episode in the Life of Amelia Butterworth by Green, Anna Katharine
Images of the same hero are used in ceremonies, and are sometimes found as household gods or penates, which are fed as if human beings.
From Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744 by Fewkes, Jesse Walter
I decided to go and protect my lares and penates, trivial though they might be.
From Kitty's Conquest by King, Charles
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.
