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Damʹoclēsʹ Sword

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Evil foreboded or dreaded. Damʹoclēs, the sycophant of Dionysius the elder, of Syracuse, was invited by the tyrant to try the felicity he so much envied. Accordingly he was set down to a sumptuous banquet, but overhead was a sword suspended by a hair. Damoclēs was afraid to stir, and the banquet was a tantalising torment to him. (Cicero.)

“These fears hang like Damoclesʹ sword over every feast, and make enjoyment impossible.”—Chambers’s Cyclopœdia.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Dalle (French)
Dalmatica
Dam
Damage
Damask Linen
Damaskeening
Dambea
Dame du Lac
Damiens Bed of Steel
Damn with Faint Praise
Damoclēs Sword
Damon and Musidora
Damon and Pythias
Damper (A)
Damsel
Damson
Damyan
Dan
Dan Tucker
Danace
Danaë

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