adore

adore 1 worship, venerate, *revere, reverence

Analogous words: laud, *praise, extol: *exalt, magnify

Antonyms: blaspheme

Contrasted words: *execrate, curse

2 Adore, worship, idolize in their nonreligious senses mean to love or admire excessively.

Adore commonly implies emotional surrender to the charms or attractions of an object of love or admiration; it often connotes extreme adulation if the object of love is a person

{

this inability . . . to project his personality is a serious weakness in a country which likes to adore its leaders— Doty

}

With other objects it may connote no more than a hearty liking

{

like gourmets and yellow flies, sows adore eating truffles— Lauber

}

Worship usually implies more extravagant admiration or more servile attentions than adore; it also commonly connotes an awareness of one’s own inferiority or of one’s distance from the object of one’s love

{

he worships his wife

}

{

small boys who worship astronauts

}

Idolize often implies absurdly excessive admiration or doting love

{

idolizing money in life and poetry—New School Bulletin

}

Sometimes, however, it comes very close to adore

{

a spoiled child is often one that has been idolized by his parents

}

Analogous words: love, dote (see LIKE): admire, esteem (see under REGARD n)

Antonyms: detest

Contrasted words: *hate, loathe, abhor, abominate: *despise, scorn, contemn, disdain