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lotus-eater

[loh-tuh s-ee-ter]
noun
  1. Classical Mythology. a member of a people whom Odysseus found existing in a state of languorous forgetfulness induced by their eating of the fruit of the legendary lotus; one of the lotophagi.
  2. a person who leads a life of dreamy, indolent ease, indifferent to the busy world; daydreamer.
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Origin of lotus-eater

1825–35; singular of lotus-eaters, translation of Greek Lōtophágoi, noun use of masculine plural of lōtophágos lotus-eating. See lotus, -phagous
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for lotus-eater

Historical Examples

  • We may be happy for a brief while, with the brief happiness of a lotus-eater; but it cannot last—it cannot last!

    A Changed Heart

    May Agnes Fleming

  • About it were chairs and divans that would have satisfied a lotus-eater.

  • In this case I waited till I felt like a lotus-eater who could have stayed on forever.

    A-Birding on a Bronco

    Florence A. Merriam

  • The Lotus-eater gave up family and country; "chewing the lotus, he forgot the return."

    Homer's Odyssey

    Denton J. Snider

  • Thus we mark the inner transition: the active principle of that which was a passive Lotus-eater is the Cyclops, a Polyphemus.

    Homer's Odyssey

    Denton J. Snider

British Dictionary definitions for lotus-eater

lotus-eater

noun
  1. Greek myth one of a people encountered by Odysseus in North Africa who lived in indolent forgetfulness, drugged by the fruit of the legendary lotus
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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