/ · 1894 Brewer’s · O · Ovation
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A triumph; a triumphal reception or entry of the second order; so called from ovis, a sheep, because the Romans sacrificed a sheep to a victorious general to whom an ovation was accorded, but an ox to one who had obtained a “triumph.”
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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.