King Lear
1
7.0
- proper noun
- /kɪŋ lɪr/
- Literature
:
Rey Lear
- King Lear struggles to understand the betrayal of his daughters in Shakespeare's tragic play.
- Shakespeare's King Lear
Examples
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King Lear dies of grief.
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A lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear than by all the dry volumes of ethics and divinity that were ever written.
Academic text (2014) -
His name was King Lear.
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It's such a shame that... King Lear died of a broken heart.
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I didn't know how to answer a question about King Lear.
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They want you for King Lear on Broadway.
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- And then, poor King Lear finally died because his sorrow and his grief were greater than his madness.
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The same year Shakespeare wrote that in King Lear, the Puritans sailed from England and landed in Virginia and Boston.
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In the story of King Lear, the aging monarch divides his kingdom based on his daughters' flattery.
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The tragedy of King Lear unfolds as he grapples with the consequences of his decisions and the loyalty of his children.
Synonyms
28
8.9
A king in Shakespeare's play whose two daughters betray him
A legendary British king whose daughters betray him and who appears in Shakespeare's tragedy
Surface Forms
Morphology
Formally the phrase is compositionally 'king' + the proper name 'Lear', so a learner who knows both constituents can at least infer it refers to a king called Lear. However, the literary and cultural senses (the legendary British king, Shakespeare's tragic title character and associated themes like betrayal and madness) are not predictable from the parts alone and require prior exposure, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
King Lear comes from an old British legend and is the title character in Shakespeare's play. The story shows a proud king who divides his land between his daughters and is later 'betrayed' and goes 'mad', so today King Lear is known as a tragic old ruler who loses power and his mind.