Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A star, especially Polaris, that is used as a point of reference.
- n. A guiding principle, interest, or ambition.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A star used as a navigation reference, particularly a pole star such as Polaris.
- n. A guiding tenet or principle.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. Same as loadstar.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A star that leads or serves to guide; especially, the pole-star: often used figuratively.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. guiding star; a star that is used as a reference point in navigation or astronomy
- n. something that serves as a model or guide
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Examples
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North Korean state media had used the term "lodestar" in reference to Kim Jong Il, as well as for the name of long-range rockets the country tested in 1998 and 2009, the NYT reports.
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Remember our nation's lodestar is a better future.
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His theological lodestar is Augustine, not Thomas Aquinas.
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To believe that Obama is a socialist merely assumes his continued commitment to a world he has long described as his lodestar.
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"Are we losing our lodestar, which is the Bill of Rights?"
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Blood and death suffuses the history of southern Africa, but our lodestar is a noble hope.
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The lodestar was a term North Korean propagandists had used for Mr. Kim.
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Smith's favourite movie, is, she says, a 'lodestar' to her when writing anything: 'The time to make your mind up about people is never!'
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For many years, the British monarchy acted as a kind of lodestar for Americans, representing its nation's realpolitik process while itself escaping any overt political involvement.
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Despite bitter disputes with France and Germany before the Iraq invasion in 2003, Washington has come to rely on the European Union over the last year as "a kind of lodestar," in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's words, that inspires and attracts democratic movements from Ukraine to the Middle East.
rolig commented on the word lodestar
There is a nice discussion of the origins of this word on Languagehat's website: http://languagehat.com/lodestar/#comments. The related word "lodestone" also came up.
July 1, 2015
Prolagus commented on the word lodestar
Lady, lady, should you meet
One whose ways are all discreet,
One who murmurs that his wife
Is the lodestar of his life,
One who keeps assuring you
That he never was untrue,
Never loved another one...
Lady, lady better run.
(Dorothy Parker)
June 17, 2008