Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Godiva   /gədˈaɪvə/   Listen
Godiva

noun
1.
According to legend she rode naked through Coventry in order to persuade her husband not to tax the townspeople so heavily; the only person to look at her as she rode by was a man named Tom and Peeping Tom has become a synonym for voyeur (circa 1040-1080).  Synonym: Lady Godiva.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Godiva" Quotes from Famous Books



... Brentano, the author of "Godiva," and Arnim, author of the "Countess Dolores," may also be mentioned among the remarkable ...
— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta

... for a curious prying fellow; derived from an old legendary tale, told of a taylor of Coventry, who, when Godiva countess of Chester rode at noon quite naked through that town, in order to procure certain immunities for the inhabitants, (notwithstanding the rest of the people shut up their houses) shly peeped ...
— 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue • Captain Grose et al.

... would receive embraces in a bath of blood? Is there not a Fulvia, who takes the head of the murdered Cicero in her hands, and tears his dumb tongue with her bodkin? And are there not a Saint Elizabeth and a Lady Godiva, capable of supernal deeds of self-denial and heroism for the sake of blessing the poor? The personality of any one of the best representatives of womanhood is as vivid and delicate as though moulded ...
— The Friendships of Women • William Rounseville Alger

... anguish, added expense, Chinese revolutions, and the standard joke about your wife's using your best razor to open a can of tomatoes with. Hair has been of aid to Buffalo Bill, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Samson, The Lady Godiva, Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy, poets, pianists, some artists and most mattress makers, but a drawback and a sorrow to Absalom, polar bears in captivity and the male ...
— Cobb's Anatomy • Irvin S. Cobb

... men were mostly on foot, casting furtive glances to right and left, evident snappers-up of unconsidered trifles, truculent, ragged, wearing evil-looking knives by their sides. During their transit the village had shut itself up, as Coventry did for Godiva's ride. When we all ventured forth again the talk was of missing poultry and rifled fruit trees. The geese had luckily started for their day on the high pastures before the bad folk came; for in a German village ...
— Home Life in Germany • Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick

... this family named Leofric, and it is probably of the one living at this time that the curious old tradition of Coventry belongs, which related how his wife, the Lady Godiva, rode through the town with no covering but her abundant hair, to obtain from him the remission of the townspeople from his oppressive exactions—a story of which the memory is kept up at Coventry by a holiday, and the procession ...
— Cameos from English History, from Rollo to Edward II • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... Gabrielle, God's hero Ganore, white wave Gatty, spear maid Genevieve, white wave Georgina, thrifty wife Georgiana, thrifty wife Geraldine, spear power Gerda, enclosure Gertrude, spear maiden Gill (or Gillet), downy Gillespie, bishop's servant Gillian, downy Gladuse, lame Godiva, divine gift Grace, grace, favour Griselda, stone heroine Guda, divine Gundrada, war council Gundred, war council Gunhilda, war heroine Gunnilda, war battle-maid Gunnora, war protection Gwendolen, white-browed Gytha, happy Hagar, a stranger ...
— Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 • Edward William Cole



Words linked to "Godiva" :   peeress, noblewoman, lady



Copyright © 2024 Dictionary One.com