noun
- Classical Mythology.
- (used with a plural verb)nymphs, variously given as three to seven in number, who guarded with the dragon Ladon the golden apples that were the wedding gift of Gaea to Hera.
- (used with a singular verb)the garden where the golden apples were grown.
- (used with a plural verb)Islands of the Blessed.
- (italics) (used with a plural verb) a collection of poems (1648) by Robert Herrick.
pl n Greek myth
- the daughters of Hesperus, nymphs who kept watch with a dragon over the garden of the golden apples in the Islands of the Blessed
- (functioning as singular) the gardens themselves
- another name for the Islands of the Blessed