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Damocles
(redirected from Damoclean)

    Also found in: Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.03 sec.
Dam·o·cles  (dm-klz) fl. fourth century b.c.
Greek courtier to Dionysius the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse, who according to legend was forced to sit at a banquet table under a sword suspended by a single hair to demonstrate the precariousness of a king's fortunes.
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Noun1.Damocles - the Greek courtier to Dionysius the Elder who (according to legend) was condemned to sit under a naked sword that was suspended by a hair in order to demonstrate to him that being a king was not the happy state Damocles had said it was (4th century BC)
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Otherwise, the provision hangs like a Damoclean sword above every multinational taxpayer's return.
Guidance priorities following enactment of the 1997 tax bill by Cherecwich, Paul, Jr. / Tax Executive
15, which had repeatedly been suspended but had continued to hang over the heads of Adenauer and his ministers like a Damoclean sword, was officially annulled on March 27, 1952.
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Whether we are speaking of literature for children or education in general, the word multiculturalism is as omnipresent (and, to some, as ominous) as the proverbial Damoclean sword that hung by a thread over an ancient king, reminding him how tenuous life -- and power -- can be.
All our relations by Bruchac, Joseph / The Horn Book Magazine
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