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Sword of Damocles

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Sword Of Damocles
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Sword Of Damocles
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Dam⋅o⋅cles

  [dam-uh-kleez]
–noun
1. a flatterer who, having extolled the happiness of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, was seated at a banquet with a sword suspended over his head by a single hair to show him the perilous nature of that happiness.
—Idiom
2. sword of Damocles, any situation threatening imminent harm or disaster.
Related forms:
Dam⋅o⋅cle⋅an  [dam-uh-klee-uhn] , adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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sword of Damocles  
n.  Constant threat; imminent peril: "the Latin American debt, overhanging American banks like the sword of Damocles" (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.)

[After Damocles.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

Damocles 
courtier of Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse; his name in Gk. means lit. "fame of the people," from demos, damos "people" (see demotic) + -kles "fame," a common ending in Gk. proper names (e.g. Sophocles, Pericles), from PIE *klew-es, from base *kleu- "to hear" (see listen). To teach Damocles how a tyrant lives, Dionysius seated him at a banquet with a sword suspended above his head by a single hair.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

sword of Damocles

Also, Damocles' sword. Impending disaster, as in The likelihood of lay-offs has been a sword of Damocles over the department for months. This expression alludes to the legend of Damocles, a servile courtier to King Dionysius I of Syracuse. The king, weary of Damocles' obsequious flattery, invited him to a banquet and seated him under a sword hung by a single hair, so as to point out to him the precariousness of his position. The idiom was first recorded in 1747. The same story gave rise to the expression hang by a thread.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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