lotus-eater

American  

[loh-tuhs-ee-ter] / ˈloʊ təsˌi tər /

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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lotus-eater British  

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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Etymology

Origin of lotus-eater

First recorded in 1660–80; singular of lotus-eaters, translation of Latin Lōtophagī, from Greek Lōtophágoi, noun use of masculine plural adjective lōtophágos “lotus-eating.” See lotus, -phagous

Example Sentences

How they got home you must read in Homer:—Mr. Tennyson—himself, we presume, a dreamy lotus-eater, a delicious lotus-eater—leaves them in full song.

From Early Reviews of English Poets by Haney, John Louis

Is this the existence of the lotus-eater, Marian?

From The Bachelors A Novel by Orcutt, William Dana

It was aristocratic, enchantingly indolent, like the face of a happy lotus-eater.

From The Garden of Allah by Hichens, Robert Smythe

I am no lotus-eater by nature," he went on with energy, "and so I fought and conquered it.

From The Centaur by Blackwood, Algernon

There is much truth in Mr. Gosse's saying that "the poet is not a lotus-eater who has never known the Gospel, but an evangelist turned inside out."

From Old and New Masters by Lynd, Robert