Polonius
Americannoun
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.
“Hamnet,” by contrast, is to feeling what Polonius, the famously bloviating cliché-monger in “Hamlet,” is to wisdom.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 27, 2025
Bushy-browed Waterston began his acting career as a stage actor in New York with a number of Shakespeare roles, including Lear, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, Prospero, Leonato, Prince Hal, Silvius, Cloten and Benedict.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 2, 2024
Last year, Van Norden played Polonius in an otherwise unmemorable Antaeus production of “Hamlet” and made the character seem more fascinating than even Hamlet.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 10, 2023
As Claudius, Wright has the self-consciously composed air of a politician but misses some of the menace, while Peter Wight leans too heavily on the bumbling as Polonius.
From New York Times • Jun. 30, 2022
The lady Froweridel died giving birth to me, depriving also my brother, Laertes, and my father, Polonius, of her care.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
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.
