lares and penates

Definitions

1. The household deities of ancient Rome, respectively overseeing the family and its house and storerooms.
   Roman, plural, plural-only
2. One's prized possessions, considered as the protectors or symbols of one's household.
   figuratively, plural, plural-only

Examples

“The particular gods of the household were its lares and penates.”

“I am returned to my own⟳ Lares and Penates—to my dogs and cats.”

“Dissenters came to South Carolina in the decade 1680-1690, some of them persons of means who might have⟳ brought with them their lares and penates.”

““Please⟳ understand⟳ me now—if it were nothing more than muffled tones and scars on your Aeolus's bellows there, merely some calcified foreign matter⟳, then I would send⟳ you packing to rejoin your lares and penates, and not worry⟳ one white more about you.””

CEFR level