Ambrosia
Classical Mythology. the food of the gods.
Compare (def 3).
something especially delicious to taste or smell.
a fruit dessert made of oranges and shredded coconut and sometimes pineapple.
Contemporary Examples
Like ambrosia from the gods, I suddenly realized that Nicotine is the most amazing legal substance of the twentieth century.
How My Little Slice of Heaven Became My Toddler’s Hell Laura Bennett October 20, 2008
Start with the beets and horseradish crème fraiche, then move on to the ambrosia burger, ending strong with the banana cream pie.
Gal With a Suitcase Jolie Hunt February 19, 2010
If Tilda Swinton ate anything for five years straight, it would probably be ambrosia.
The Tilda Swinton Weirdness Quiz: All About the MoMA-Napping Actress Melissa Leon March 26, 2013
Historical Examples
Equanimity is sweet to taste, and has the supernatural power of transforming every thing to ambrosia.
The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, vol. 3 (of 4) part 2 (of 2) Valmiki
He goes on to state that the month is so called from the Lenaea, or from the ambrosia.
The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 Various
ambrosia found a card, and on it was the name of a firm which ardently assured her it wanted to afford her credit.
News Writing M. Lyle Spencer
He felt as Romulus might have felt when first invited to taste the ambrosia of the gods.
Kenelm Chillingly, Complete Edward Bulwer-Lytton
At dinner that day the rice pudding had the flavor of ambrosia.
Explorers of the Dawn Mazo de la Roche
This will be found a dish rivalling the ambrosia of high Olympus.
Social Life Maud C. Cooke
However, we quickly despatched them, and no ambrosia could have been more delicious.
Typee Herman Melville
noun
(classical myth) the food of the gods, said to bestow immortality Compare nectar (sense 2)
anything particularly delightful to taste or smell
another name for beebread
any of various herbaceous plants constituting the genus Ambrosia, mostly native to America but widely naturalized: family Asteraceae (composites). The genus includes the ragweeds
n.
1550s, “favored food or drink of the gods,” from Latin ambrosia, from Greek ambrosia “food of the gods,” fem. of ambrosios, probably literally “of the immortals,” from a- “not” (see a- (3)) + mbrotos, related to mortos “mortal,” from PIE *mer- “to die” (see mortal (adj.)). Applied to certain herbs by Pliny and Dioscorides; used of various foods for mortals since 1680s (originally of fruit drinks); used figuratively for “anything delightful” by 1731.
ambrosia [(am-broh-zhuh)]
The food of the gods in classical mythology. Those who ate it became immortal.
Note: Particularly delicious food is sometimes called “ambrosia.”
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