idolize
/ˈʌɪd(ə)lʌɪz
/(also idolise)
verb [with object]
Admire, revere, or love greatly or excessively: he idolized his mother...
- She was a keen music fan who loved pop music and idolised Justin Timberlake.
- In fact in the same way that Victoria admires me, he idolizes Morgan, though I don't know why.
- He is a sprawling maverick with a gravel-slide voice and bluesy guitar copied by Eric Clapton, idolised by Phil Collins and revered for his gruff love ballads.
Synonyms
hero-worship, worship, revere, venerate, deify, lionize, adulate, adore, stand in awe of, reverence, look up to, admire, exalt, love, dote upon
informal put on a pedestal
Derivatives
idolization
/ noun ...- The difference between seeing The Smiths live and Morrissey live can be characterized as the difference between adoration and idolization.
- Nevertheless, the plot makes some cogent comments on the idolization of designers, and the ending is ruthlessly appropriate.
- The idolization of the market as a perfect, self-regulating mechanism that always leads to the best possible outcomes is as far from reality as the hopes of socialist central planners.
idolizer
/ noun ...- And idolisers are mostly irrational; I don't want blind worshipping.
- As well as pro-monarchists and pro-communists, there are a host of other sons and idolisers of long-dead politicians from the post-war era.
- But idolizers and idols are used wherever gods are in flight and so announce their nearness.