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sword of Damocles
noun
- any situation threatening imminent harm or disaster.
Sword of Damocles
noun
- a closely impending disaster
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Word History and Origins
Origin of sword of Damocles1
First recorded in 1810–20
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Word History and Origins
Origin of sword of Damocles1
see Damocles
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Idioms and Phrases
Also, Damocles' sword . Impending disaster, as in The likelihood of lay-offs has been a sword of Damocles over the department for months . This expression alludes to the legend of Damocles, a servile courtier to King Dionysius I of Syracuse. The king, weary of Damocles' obsequious flattery, invited him to a banquet and seated him under a sword hung by a single hair, so as to point out to him the precariousness of his position. The idiom was first recorded in 1747. The same story gave rise to the expression hang by a thread .Advertisement
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.
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