Lorelei
WordNet
noun
(1) A Siren of German legend who lured boatmen in the Rhine to destruction
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From the Lorelei rock on the Rhine, which was haunted by one of these creatures according to German legend.
Noun
- a siren; a temptress
- 1965, William Henry Davenport, Ben Siegel, Biography past and present: selections and critical essays
- We grew silly, tongue-tied, said foolish things we did not mean to say, shoved one another about in the boat, and finally overturned it. The loreleis laughed musical little laughs.
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- 1977: She was like a mermaid, an isolated creature that lives in fulfillment of its own senses; she lured me on, she was the lorelei of the gleaming river of traffic with its million, brilliant eyes that intermittently flowed between us. — Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve
- 1965, William Henry Davenport, Ben Siegel, Biography past and present: selections and critical essays