From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishidoli‧dol /ˈaɪdl/ ●○○ noun [countable] 1 ADMIREsomeone or something that you love or admire very much SYN heroidol of She is the idol of countless teenagers. She had made an idol of her husband. a pop idol2 RRa picture or statue that is worshipped as a god → effigy
Examples from the Corpus
idol• Muhammad Ali was my idol when I was a boy.• You know I have long been troubled by two different features of that mysterious idol.• But the emotional response to his death has gone beyond the standard mourning of a pop idol.• Jones continues to be a major pop idol.• Chakras connected by copper wire leading to the head of the idol.• The former President, once the idol of the nation, now leads a quiet life in the countryside.• He held the syringe with its end close to the idol and pulled the piston out sharply.• You know that we chemists here have all been baffled by the apparently limitless energy which the idol emits slowly but steadily?pop idol• But the emotional response to his death has gone beyond the standard mourning of a pop idol.• They're to appear at Oxford's Appolo theatre with fifties pop idol Russ Conway.• They knew we'd been talking to their pop idols and they just wanted to touch us.Origin idol (1200-1300) Old French idole, from Greek eidolon “image, idol” 