/ · 1894 Brewer’s · A · Adonis
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A beautiful boy. The allusion is to Adoʹnis, who was beloved by Venus, and was killed by a boar while hunting.
“Rose-cheeked Adonis hied him to the chase;
Hunting he loved; but love he laughed to scorn.
Sick-thoughted Venus makes amain unto him,
And, like a bold-faced suitor,ʹ gins to woo him.”
Shakespeare: Venus and Adonis.
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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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