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cherub🔊

(biblical) A winged creature attending God, described by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (c. 5th–6th century) as the second highest order of angels, ranked above thrones and below seraphim; similar to a lamassu in the pre-exilic texts of the Hebrew Bible, more humanoid in later texts.

💬 Quotations
And pity, like a naked new-born babe, / Striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubin, hors’d / Upon the sightless couriers of the air, / Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, / That tears shall drown the wind.

An artistic depiction of such a being, typically in the form of a winged child or a child's head with wings but no body.

📑 Synonyms: amoretto cupid putto

(figuratively) A person, especially a child, seen as being particularly angelic or innocent.

📑 Synonyms: angel innocent