idealized image
Americannoun
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a personal standard of perfection against which one's actual thinking, behavior, and appearance are compared.
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an exaggerated and unrealistic view of one's virtues and abilities.
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.
On a sunny day, the area is at its postcard best, and much of the lake lives up to that idealized image.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 20, 2021
Better to worship that idealized image than to admit that their unhappiness will follow them wherever they go.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 29, 2019
It gave him a sense of purpose, living up to the idealized image of this man he had only started to get to know.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2019
The subdued doo-wop tune “Masterpiece” expresses mortified awareness that an idealized image of a marriage is shattered.
From New York Times ● Oct. 31, 2018
The American, deluded by a falsely idealized image which he calls America, can say that the purity of Longfellow represents the purity of American home life.
From Modern Essays by Ayres, Harry Morgan
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.
