hero worship 
noun [mass noun]
Excessive admiration for someone: the music press, with its bias towards hero worship...
- In fact, it was outright hero worship - Sinatra aped the way D'Amato dressed, smoked, tipped, even the way he spoke.
- I think he was flattered by my teenage hero worship.
- I'm not the kind of guy who engages in cheap hero worship.
verb (hero-worship) [with object]
Admire (someone) excessively: I used to hero-worship the guy...
- She was a devoted mother who hero-worshipped her children, and they similarly worshipped her.
- In the global village of the 21st century, footie fans have become ambassadors for their country as they track their beloved teams and hero-worshipped players across the world.
- That's what happened to City fan Paul Butler, who during the 1980s hero-worshipped Keith Walwyn to such an extent he even wrote a song about him and sent it to the City legend.
Synonyms
idolization, adulation, admiration, idealization, awe, high esteem, high regard, putting on a pedestal;
worship, adoration, glorification, exaltation, veneration, reverence
rare magnification
Derivatives
hero-worshipper
/ noun ...- They are hero-worshippers that follow the impressive older animals about, in the process learning the locations of the seasonal grazing areas they use.
- And courtesy Bhandarkar, a nation of hero-worshippers got a peek into the life of their icons, but what they saw were only feet of clay.
- Yes, all heroic exaltation is dangerous, but the danger is not to the hero-worshipers, but to the hero.