Icarus

American  

[ik-er-uhs, ahy-ker-] / ˈɪk ər əs, ˈaɪ kər- /

noun

1. Classical Mythology. Also Ikaros a youth who attempted to escape from Crete with wings of wax and feathers but flew so high that his wings melted from the heat of the sun, and he plunged to his death in the sea.

2. Astronomy. an asteroid whose eccentric orbit brings it closer to the sun than any other known asteroid.

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Icarus British  

/ ˈaɪ-, ˈɪkərəs /

noun

1. Greek myth the son of Daedalus, with whom he escaped from Crete, flying with wings made of wax and feathers. Heedless of his father's warning he flew too near the sun, causing the wax to melt, and fell into the Aegean and drowned

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Icarus Scientific  

/ ĭk′ər-əs /

1. A small asteroid with a highly eccentric, Earth-crossing orbit that takes it to within 30 million km (19 million mi) of the Sun, or closer than the planet Mercury. In 1968 Icarus approached within 6 million km (4 million mi) of the Earth.

2. See more at asteroid

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Icarus Cultural  

1. In classical mythology, the son of Daedalus. Icarus died tragically while using artificial wings, invented by his father, to escape from the Labyrinth. When Icarus flew too close to the sun, it melted the wax that held the wings together, and he fell into the sea.

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Example Sentences

Like Icarus, whose wings of wax carried him too close to the sun, the U.S. economy sometimes flies so high that its wax wings melt.

From Salon • Jul. 30, 2025

On screen, they possessed a bewitching stillness, performing barefoot in a pair of golden feathered trousers like some sort of musical Icarus.

From BBC • May 30, 2025

Some of the details feel marvelously resonant, especially how the off-the-clock Shelly never can scrub off every speck of glitter, or the way she keeps ripping her costume wings like some cabaret Icarus.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 9, 2025

Like Icarus soaring toward the heavens, like Orpheus sneaking a peek over his shoulder, so too did the Hawk Tuah Girl test the Gods of the Zynternet with her own hubris by launching a cryptocurrency.

From Slate • Dec. 20, 2024

In the lower right-hand corner, in much the same out-of-the-way position as the disappearing legs of Icarus in the painting by Bruegel, my parents are making lunch.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood