Word Finder - favourites

definition

A person or thing who enjoys special regard or favour.

example

The teacher's favourite always went first.

definition

A person who is preferred or trusted above all others.

definition

A contestant or competitor thought most likely to win.

example

She's the favourite, she'll probably be elected.

synonyms

• top dog

definition

A bookmark in a web browser.

definition

(in the plural) A short curl dangling over the temples, fashionable in the reign of Charles II.

He was a weakling, swayed by his favourites in the Murad III., harem, especially by his Venetian wife Safie; and, 1574-1595.

Giraffes are inhabitants of open country, and owing to their length of neck and long flexible tongues are enabled to browse on tall trees, mimosas being favourites.

The same society which produced his infamous favourites also produced St Philip of Moscow, and by refusing to listen to St Philip Ivan sank below even the not very lofty moral standard of his own age.

The tradition was steadily followed and was extended to some ladies of the imperial family and even to imperial favourites.

In 1631 the spahis of Asia Minor rose in revolt, in protest against the deposition of the grand vizier Khosrev; their representatives crowded to Constantinople, stoned the new grand vizier, Hafiz, in the court of the palace, and pursued the sultan himself into the inner apartments, clamouring for seventeen heads of his advisers and favourites, on penalty of his own deposition.

But his preference for a sedentary and not for an active life and his increasing attachment to favourites of humble birth diminished his popularity, and he had some differences with his parliament.

On the death of Alphonso in 1481, his counsellors and favourites were harshly treated by his successor John, and Abrabanel was compelled to flee to Spain, where he held for eight years (1484-1492) the post of a minister of state under Ferdinand and Isabella.

Much as he admired these writers, Hume and Robertson were still greater favourites, as well from their subject as for their style.

Of animals, the cow and the pig are her favourites, the latter owing to its productivity and the cathartic properties of its blood.

In 17 4 o he entered the army, and rumour had it that he was one of the favourites of the empress Elizabeth.

Caligula was not predisposed to favour the favourites of Tiberius; and Antipas, having petitioned him for the title of king at the instigation of Herodias, was banished from his tetrarchy and (apparently) was put to death in 39.

A grotesque feature of the time in Germany and Austria was the class of court Jews, such as the Oppenheims, the personal favourites of rulers and mostly their victims when their usefulness had ended.

While the court Jews were the favourites of kings, the protected Jews were the protégés of town councils.

He is violently opposed to the court and the foreign favourites.

In 1775 he was superseded in the empress's graces by Zavadovsky; but the relations between Catherine and her former lover continued to be most friendly, and his influence with her was never seriously disturbed by any of her subsequent favourites.

He was indubitably the most extraordinary of all the Catherinian favourites.

After a brief struggle with the task of directing the administration of the most extensive and the worst organized monarchy in Europe, he sank back into his pleasures and was governed by other favourites.

After the downfall and murder of Stilicho (408), the result of palace intrigues, the emperor was under the control of incompetent favourites.

The goddess Irnina (a form of Ishtar, q.v.) in revenge kills Eabani, and the balance of the epic is taken up with Gilgamesh's lament for his friend, his wanderings in quest of a remote ancestor, Ut-Napishtim, from whom he hopes to learn how he may escape the fate of Eabani, and his finally learning from his friend of the sad fate in store for all mortals except the favourites of the god, like Ut-Napishtim, to whom immortal life is vouchsafed as a special boon.

In 399 he was killed by one of his favourites while hunting; according to another account he was the victim of a conspiracy.

Most of the leading breeds have clubs or societies, which have been founded by admirers with a view to furthering the interests of their favourites; and such combinations as the Bulldog Club (incorporated), the London Bulldog Society, the British Bulldog Club, the Fox Terrier Club, the Association of Bloodhound Breeders - under whose management the first man-hunting trials were held, - the Bloodhound Hunt Club, the Collie Club, the Dachshund Club, the Dandie Dinmont Terrier Club, the English Setter Club, the Gamekeepers' Association of the United Kingdom, the International Gun Dog League, the Irish Terrier Club, the Irish Wolfhound Club, the St Bernard Club, the National Terrier Club, the Pomeranian Club, the Spaniel Club, the Scottish Terrier Club and the Toy Bulldog Club have done good work in keeping the claims of the breeds they represent before the dogowning public and encouraging the breeding of dogs to type.

Dog lovers are now numbered by their tens of thousands, and in addition to shows of their favourites, owners are also liberally catered for in the shape of working trials, for during the season competitions for bloodhounds, pointers, setters, retrievers, spaniels and sheepdogs are held.

In the familia urbana the favourites of the master had good treatment, and might exercise some influence over him which would lead to their receiving flattery and gifts from those who sought his vote or solicited his support.

Her blunt manners, her unconcealed scorn of the male favourites that disgraced the court, and perhaps also her sense of unrequited merit, produced an estrangement between her and the empress, which ended in her asking permission to travel abroad.

The best of his books after this date are those written expressly for boys, the favourites being Masterman Ready (1841), The Settlers in Canada (1844), and The Children of the New Forest (1847).

He meets the charge of receiving assistance in the composition of his plays by claiming as a great honour the favour which he enjoyed with those who were the favourites of the Roman people.

Voltaire had made, however, a useful friend in another grand seigneur, as profligate and nearly as intelligent, the duke of Richelieu, and with him he passed 1724 and the next year chiefly, recasting Mariamne (which was now successful), writing the comedy of L'Indiscret, and courting the queen, the ministers, the favourites and everybody who seemed worth.

Exclusive of his controversial writings, he left behind him a very voluminous series of practical evangelical books, which have long remained the fireside favourites of the peasantry of French Protestantism.

He resented the action of France and England in forcing the settlement of Kutaiah upon him, and remained shut up in his palace, inaccessible to all save his favourites and the representative of Russia.

Upon his head was concentrated the whole of the popular indignation against the foreign favourites; and he seems to have deserved this unenviable distinction.

They admit of being forced into early bloom, like the hyacinth and tulip. They vary with a white, creamy or yellow perianth, and a yellow, lemon, primrose or white cup or coronet; and, being richly fragrant, they are general favourites amongst spring flowers.

His rule was noted for firmness, moderation and high political sagacity, and he succeeded for a long time in retaining the friendship and confidence of his master the shah, although his career was beset with political intrigues and jealousy on the part of rival and court favourites, and with internal turbulence.

Favourites, too, without governing entirely for him, played an important part in his reign.

He governed in the midst of a group of favourites, who formed the conseil des affaires.

Greek and Italian were his first favourites, but he was well read in English literature and in French, and acquired some knowledge of Spanish.

In spite of strong personal opinions to the contrary, he accepted the Triennial Act (1694), the vote reducing the army to io,000 men (1697), the vote disbanding his favourite Dutch Guards (1699) and even (November 1699) a bill re- scinding the grants of forfeited Irish estates, which he had made to his favourites.

He was an unfaithful husband and often treated his wife with scant consideration; he was too fond of Dutch favourites like Keppel or worthless women like Lady Orkney.

But his whole reign is a time of continuous decay; the original force of the Persians had been exhausted in luxury and intrigues, and the king, though personally brave and good-natured, was quite dependent upon his favourites and his harem, and especially upon his mother Parysatis.

In frequenting the salons of her friends the queen not only came in contact with a number of the younger and more dissipated courtiers, whose high play and unseemly amusements she countenanced, but she fell under the influence of various ambitious intriguers, such as the baron de Besenval, the comte de Vaudreuil, the duc de Lauzun and the comte d'Adhemar, whose interested manoeuvres she was induced to further by her affection for her favourites.

Personal motives alone would lead her to interfere in public affairs, especially when it was a question of obtaining places or favours for her favourites and their friends.

Although the attempt to force the Roman Catholic religion upon the people, the federal decree of 1830 forbidding further immigration from the states, and the reckless grants of land to Mexican favourites.

He replaced the earlier favourites, members of the "unofficial committee," in the tsar's confidence, becoming practically sole minister, all questions being laid by him alone before the emperor and usually settled at once by the two between them.

This corruption was fatally apparent in the army, the feudal basis of which was sapped by the confiscation of fiefs for the benefit of nominees of favourites of the harem, and by the intrusion, through the same influences of foreigners and rayahs into the corps of janissaries, of which the discipline became more and more relaxed and the temper increasingly turbulent.

He and the constable Muzio Attendolo Sforza completely dominated her, and the turbulent barons wished to provide her with a husband who would be strong enough to break her favourites yet not make himself king.

He is frequently introduced in legendary sagas, generally in disguise, imparting secret instructions to his favourites or presenting them with weapons by which victory is assured.

He was fond of field sports and seemed to acquiesce in his mother's occupation of power and in the rule of her favourites.

Henri d'Effiat, marquis de Cinq-Mars, was the last of these favourites.

The Girondists, for all their fine phrases, were sold to the enemy, as Lafayette, Dumouriez and a hundred others - once popular favourites - had been sold.

Owing to the great beauty of the flowers they have been favourites in European gardens for two or three centuries, and have been crossed and recrossed till it has become almost impossible to refer the plants to their original types.

He was the last and the most wilful but perhaps the best of her favourites, and his tragic fate deepened the gloom of her closing years.