adoration
(ˌædəˈreɪʃən, ˌædɔə-)
[a. Fr. adoration, ad. L. adōrātiōn-em, n. of action f. adōrā-re; see adore.]
1. The act of worshipping, or paying divine honours; worship, reverence.
| 1543 Joye Expos. Daniel iii. (R.) Muche more execrable is it to serue or worship them [images] with any reuerent behauiour ether by adoracion, prostracion, knelyng, or kissing. 1667 Milton P.L. iii. 351 With solemn adoration down they cast Thir Crowns inwove with Amarant and Gold. 1774 Bryant Mythol. II. 174 The Greeks in times of old..paid their adoration to rude unwrought stones. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. II. iv. vii. (1864) 344 The Church may draw fine and aërial distinctions between images as objects of reverence and as objects of adoration. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §25, 187 That deep and calm beauty which suggests the thought of adoration to the human mind. 1866 Liddon Bampt. Lect. vii. (1875) 362 Adoration is no mere prostration of the body, it is the prostration of the soul. |
2. fig. The exhibition of profound regard and love.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. i. v. 274 Ol. How does he loue me? Vio. With adorations. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede 29 That adoration which a young man gives to a woman whom he feels to be greater and better than himself. |
3. techn. A method of electing a pope.
| 1599 Sandys Eur. Spec. (1632) 146 Two third parts of their voyces..are requisite to him, that either by adoration or in Scrutinie shall winne that glorie. 1670 G. H. tr. Hist. Cardinals iii. ii. 286 The third way of creating Popes, is by Adoration, which is perform'd in this manner; That Cardinal, who..desires to favour any other Cardinal..puts himself before him in the Chappel, and makes him a low Reverence; and when it falls out that two thirds of the Cardinals do the same, the Pope is then understood to be created. 1860 Froude Hist. Eng. V. 296 There was a moment when the feeling was so far in his [Pole's] favour that he might have been chosen on the spot by adoration. |
† 4. Kissing the hand as a sign of honour. Obs.
(Prob. never so used, but given in the following passage as the ‘right sense’ of the word adore, as if formed from Lat. ad to + os, oris, the mouth.)
| 1614 Selden Titles 41 Adoration, and Salutation with a kisse of the hand, is all one in the right sense of the word. |