Cupid

[ kyoo-pid ]

noun
  1. Also called Amor. the ancient Roman god of love and the son of either Mars or Mercury and Venus, identified with Eros and commonly represented as a winged, naked, infant boy with a bow and arrows.

  2. (lowercase) a similar winged being, or a representation of one, especially as symbolic of love.

Origin of Cupid

1
<Latin Cupīdō Cupid, the personification of cupīdō desire, love, equivalent to cup(ere) to long for, desire + -īdō noun suffix (cf. libido)

Words Nearby Cupid

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Cupid in a sentence

  • A coquette is said to be an imperfect incarnation of Cupid, as she keeps her beau, and not her arrows, in a quiver.

  • Whenever I come up against Cupid, experience has taught me to retire deferentially, and wait until the love-fever has abated.

    The Doctor of Pimlico | William Le Queux
  • Later, he came on as Cupid with bow and arrow, and made some fine shots into a target representing a heart.

    David Lannarck, Midget | George S. Harney
  • Surely the Cupid bow of the thin Napoleonic lips was there, the distant yet piercing look.

  • A sad little marble Cupid, with his bow and quiver gone, was still pirouetting in stony glee over a stained and dried-up basin.

British Dictionary definitions for Cupid

Cupid

/ (ˈkjuːpɪd) /


noun
  1. the Roman god of love, represented as a winged boy with a bow and arrow: Greek counterpart: Eros

  2. (not capital) any similar figure, esp as represented in Baroque art

Origin of Cupid

1
C14: from Latin Cupīdō, from cupīdō desire, from cupidus desirous; see cupidity

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

Cultural definitions for Cupid

Cupid

The Roman name of Eros, the god of love. In the story of Cupid and Psyche, he is described as a magnificently handsome young man. In many stories, he is called the son of Venus.

Notes for Cupid

In art, Cupid is often depicted as a chubby, winged infant who shoots arrows at people to make them fall in love. He is also sometimes shown as blind or blindfolded.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.