revere

revere, reverence, venerate, worship, adore can all mean to regard with profound respect and honor. All imply a recognition of the exalted character of what is so respected and honored, but they can differ in regard to their objects and to the feelings and acts which they connote. Their differences in implication extend to their corresponding nouns, reverence (for both verbs revere and reverence), veneration, worship, and adoration.

One reveres with tenderness and deference not only persons or institutions entitled to respect and honor but also their accomplishments or attributes or things associated with or symbolic of such persons or institutions

{

that makes her loved at home, revered abroad— Burns

}

{

revered for the wisdom of his counsels and the nobility of his character— Collier

}

{

islands and cities which he revered as the cradle of civilization— Buchan

}

{

towards Johnson ... his [Boswell's] feeling was not sycophancy, which is the lowest, but reverence, which is the highest of human feelings— Carlyle

}

One reverences things more often than persons, especially things (as laws and customs) which have an intrinsic claim to respect or are commonly regarded as inviolable

{

we reverence tradition, but we will not be fettered by it— Inge

}

{

sincerity and simplicity! if I could only say how I reverence them— Benson

}

{

pledged to reverence the name of God— Steck

}

One venerates persons as well as things that are regarded as holy, sacred, or sacrosanct because of character, associations, or age

{

venerate saints and heroes

}

{

for Socrates he had an almost religious veneration— Nicholls

}

In a narrow sense one worships only a divine being, God, a god, or a thing deified, when one pays homage by word or ceremonial

{

churches are buildings in which God is worshiped

}

{

pagans worship idols, the sun, and the stars

}

In wider use worship implies a kind of veneration that involves the offering of homage or the attribution of an especially exalted character, whether the object is a divine being or not

{

there is a difference between admiring a poet and worshiping at a shrine— Repplier

}

{

in his calm, unexcited way, he worships success— Rose Macaulay)}

}

Adore (see also ADORE 2) is often used for worship in application to divinity; worship, however, usually suggests the group approach, and adore the personal approach, to deity. Adore therefore commonly implies love and the performance of individual acts of worship that express unquestioning love and honor (as by obeisance, prostration, and prayer)

{

[the devil] said to him: all these will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me—Mr 4:9

}

{

quiet as a nun breathless with adoration— Wordsworth

}

In more general application adore implies an extremely great and usually unquestioning love

{

his staff adored him, his men worshiped him— White

}

Analogous words: esteem, respect, regard, admire (see under REGARD n): cherish, prize, value, treasure, *appreciate

Antonyms: flout