Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A tutelary deity or spirit of an ancient Roman household.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Roman antiquity, one of a class of infernal deities whose cult was of primitive origin.
  • noun Hence One of the most cherished possessions of a family or household; one of the household gods. Compare Penates, in a like use.
  • noun The white-handed gibbon, Hylobates lar. See Hylobates.
  • noun plural A group of lepidopterous insects.
  • noun A genus of gymnoblastic or tubularian hydroids, type of the family Hydrolaridæ.
  • noun Lord: a title prefixed to Etruscan names, properly distinctive of the eldest son, and often mistaken for an integral part of the name. Also Lars.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Rom. Myth.), (Fig.), (Fig.) A tutelary deity; a deceased ancestor regarded as a protector of the family. The domestic Lares were the tutelar deities of a house; household gods.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A species of gibbon (Hylobates lar), found in Burmah. Called also white-handed gibbon.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin Lār, probably of Etruscan origin.]

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