Proper noun

1. A dryad pursued by Apollo, who was turned into a laurel tree by the river god Peneus.
2. .

Quotations

• 1594 William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act II, Scene I :

  Run when you will, the story shall be chang'd;

  Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;

  The dove pursues the griffin

• 1989 John Banville: The Book of Evidence: page 7:

  My wife. Daphne. Yes, that was, is, her name. For some reason people have always found it faintly comic. I think it matches very well her damp, dark, myopic beauty.