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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
idyll
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
rural
▪ The expectations of the latter is examined in the light of the rural idyll.
▪ This rural idyll is, however, the privilege of the minority.
▪ It will be a rural idyll.
▪ A once charming rural idyll, Emmerdale had become a moral cesspit.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Decades later, the shipbuilder was still enjoying his island idyll.
▪ Durham stood for an idyll of ten years.
▪ If we were back in urban reality now, we yet retained a glow imparted by our bucolic idyll.
▪ In order to arrive at the truth behind the idyll, I must return to the matter of attributions.
▪ Møn was an idyll for me, one enriched for its being shared with my cousin, who was my closest friend.
▪ The short romantic idyll was over.
▪ The wartime idyll between Pamela Churchill and Harriman has long been publicly known.
▪ This rural idyll is, however, the privilege of the minority.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
idyll

Idyl \I"dyl\, n. [L. idyllium, Gr. ?, fr. ? form; literally, a little form of image: cf. F. idylle. See Idol.] A short poem; properly, a short pastoral poem; as, the idyls of Theocritus; also, any poem, especially a narrative or descriptive poem, written in an eleveted and highly finished style; also, by extension, any artless and easily flowing description, either in poetry or prose, of simple, rustic life, of pastoral scenes, and the like. [Written also idyll.]

Wordsworth's solemn-thoughted idyl.
--Mrs. Browning.

His [Goldsmith's] lovely idyl of the Vicar's home.
--F. Harrison.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
idyll

also idyl, c.1600, "picturesque pastoral poem," from Latin idyllium, from Greek eidyllion "short, descriptive poem, usually of rustic or pastoral type," literally "a little picture," diminutive of eidos "form" (see -oid).

Wiktionary
idyll

n. 1 Any poem or short written piece composed in the style of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theocritus's short pastoral poems, the ''http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idylls''. 2 An episode or series of events or circumstances of pastoral or rural simplicity, fit for an idyll; a carefree or lighthearted experience. 3 (context music English) A composition, usually instrumental, of a pastoral or sentimental character, e.g. ''http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried%20Idyll'' by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard%20Wagner.

WordNet
idyll
  1. n. an episode of such pastoral or romantic charm as to qualify as the subject of a poetic idyll

  2. a musical composition that evokes rural life [syn: pastorale, pastoral]

  3. a short descriptive poem of rural or pastoral life [syn: eclogue, bucolic]

Wikipedia
Idyll

An idyll or idyl ( or ; from Greek , eidullion, "short poem") is a short poem, descriptive of rustic life, written in the style of Theocritus' short pastoral poems, the Idylls.

Unlike Homer, Theocritus did not engage in heroes and warfare. His idylls are limited to a small intimate world, and describe scenes from everyday life. Later imitators include the Roman poets Virgil and Catullus, Italian poets Torquato Tasso, Sannazaro and Leopardi, the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson ( Idylls of the King), and Nietzsche's Idylls from Messina. Goethe called his poem Hermann and Dorothea — which Schiller considered the very climax in Goethe's production — an idyll.

Usage examples of "idyll".

Entertaining feelings of gratitude for my kind host, and disposed to listen attentively to his poem, I dismissed all sadness, and I paid his poetry such compliments that he was delighted, and, finding me much more talented than he had judged me to be at first, he insisted upon treating me to a reading of his idylls, and I had to swallow them, bearing the infliction cheerfully.

The betrothal had been, so to speak, an outdoor idyll, but the cold season and married life make of Masha a stay-at-home, without a responsibility of her own, since the household runs like a clock under the strict supervision of her mother-in-law.

Maryville Anxious to preserve the mood of their brief idyll, John Wood had put off telling Maria about the bees in Maryville.

On it I composed an idyll which I cannot read, even now, without feeling tears in my eyes.

Idylls of the King is a fairly typical Victorian bowdlerization that accepted the prevailing attitude of the time that Le Morte darthur was little more than 'bold bawdry and open manslaughter'.

Sylvan idyll at nightfall, still-life with deranged dot-com refugee and brown office furniture.

His galaxy had been saved, and Honeybloom would live happily in her Stone Age idyll, and Tsopi the Polarian in her circular one.

Queen Victoria had a resident poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and he cleaned up Malory for his queen to produce a work he called Idylls of the King.

I walked to the table and saw that someone had turned Idylls of the King to a new page.

However, it soon develops that Galen isn't quite the middle American idyll it seems to be: tragedies are shrugged off by the population, some of the local dogs can speak, and a weird kind of predestination appears to rule everyday life.

Their idyll was ended by the whine of approaching outboard motors.