AVATAR • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Avatar

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/ˈævətˌɑr/ Listen

noun

Avatar n.

(Hindu Myth.) The descent of a deity to earth, and his incarnation as a man or an animal; chiefly associated with the incarnations of Vishnu.

An incarnation, embodiment or personification of a principle, quality, or attitude; used of people, mostly in a positive sense as a manifestation of a behavior or character worthy of admiration. "Martha Stewart, the home-and-hearth avatar whose products are now available at Kmart stores, is making upscale design touches like 200-thread-count cotton bed sheets something that most every American can aspire to."

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Etymology of 'Avatar'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Avatar" Quotes from Famous Books

... emotion to the convulsive hilarity produced by Gwynplaine. Without going too deep—for spectators do not like the fatigue of seeking below the surface—something more was understood than was perceived. And this strange spectacle had the transparency of an avatar. ...

— The Man Who Laughs • Victor Hugo

... Durtal said, "and that horrifies me. I know also the Hindu dogma of the migrations of souls after death. These disembodied souls stray until they are reincarnated or until they attain, from avatar to avatar, to complete purity. Well, I think it's quite enough to live once. I'd prefer nothingness, a hole in the ground, to all those metamorphoses. It's more consoling to me. As for the evocation of the ...

— La-bas • J. K. Huysmans

... much on this quotation. I might point out how St. Bridget is called the mother of the Lord, and by others, the Mary of the Irish, the 'Automata coeli regina,' and seems to have been considered at times as an avatar or incarnation of the blessed Virgin. I might more than hint how that appellation, as well as the calling of Christ 'the best of the sons of the Lord,' in an orthodox Catholic hymn, seems to point to the remnants of an ...

— The Roman and the Teuton - A Series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge • Charles Kingsley

... Gelookpa, as is the Rimbochay Lama, and the Potala Lama of Lhassa, according to Tchebu Lama, but Turner ("Travels in Tibet," p. 315) says the contrary; the Gelookpa consider Sakya Thoba (or Tsongkaba) alias Mahamouni, as their great avatar.] with the yellow-caps, they were driven from that country, and took refuge principally in the Himalaya. The Bhotan or Dhurma* [Bhotan is generally known as the Dhurma country. See note, Chapter V.] Rajah became the spiritual ...

— Himalayan Journals (Complete) • J. D. Hooker

... least can lay claim to some expansiveness beyond mere individual interest; whereas property stops dead short at the narrowest limits. It is not "Us against the world!" but "Me against my fellow-citizens!" It is the final result of the industrial war in its most hideous avatar. Look how it scars the fair face of our England with its anti-social notice-boards, "Trespassers will be prosecuted!" It says, in effect, "This is my land. God made it; but I have acquired it and tabooed it. The grass on it grows green; but only for me. The ...

— Post-Prandial Philosophy • Grant Allen

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