Polonius

noun

Po·​lo·​ni·​us pə-ˈlō-nē-əs How to pronounce Polonius (audio)
: a garrulous courtier and father of Ophelia and Laertes in Shakespeare's Hamlet

Examples of Polonius in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Roundup Editors’ Picks of 2022 Poetry, Polonius, and Prison: a collection of this year’s greatest hits from JSTOR Daily. JSTOR Daily, 24 June 2024 Daniel Pearce’s Polonius becomes heartwarming comic relief, his prolix speeches running together into an anxious, often hilarious slurry. Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 17 July 2023 Only the vivid image of the warped planks keeps this remark from being the type of sententious counsel that Polonius might have given his son. Nikhil Krishnan, The New Yorker, 26 June 2023 His Polonius prates on foolishly without losing his essential dignity. Los Angeles Times, 25 May 2022 Daniel Pearce makes of Polonius a hilariously pedantic desk jockey and bad idea bear. Jesse Green, New York Times, 28 June 2023 The guidelines ran for nearly three hundred characters, organized into nine parts, from the Party to Polonius and beyond: 1. Peter Hessler, The New Yorker, 26 June 2023 Sententious Polonius is now a church lady, Rabby (Benja Kay Thomas); her children are Opal (Adrianna Mitchell) and Larry (Calvin Leon Smith) instead of Ophelia and Laertes. Jesse Green, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2023 The cast is uniformly great, particularly Nikki Crawford's electric Tedra and Benja Kay Thomas' Rabby, a liquor-loving woman of God who's a stand-in for the much less-fun Polonius. Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 13 Apr. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1601, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of Polonius was circa 1601

Dictionary Entries Near Polonius

Cite this Entry

“Polonius.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Polonius. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.

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