Definition of "phoenix"

phoenix

/ˈfiːnɪks/

noun
plural phoenix or phoenixes or phoenices
1. (mythology) A mythological bird, said to be the only one of its kind, which lives for 500 years and then dies by burning to ashes on a pyre of its own making, ignited by the sun. It then arises anew from the ashes.
  Quotations
  burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood
  1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 19”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley
2. (figuratively) Anything that is reborn after apparently being destroyed.
  Quotations
  Lord Allerton was that modern phœnix, a young man, without a single objection.
  1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, page 17
  Many of the legitimate nightclubs of today sprang like legalized phoenixes from the still-hot ashes of the speakeasies of prohibition days.
  1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 90
3. (Chinese mythology) A mythological Chinese chimerical bird whose physical body symbolizes the six celestial bodies; a fenghuang.
4. (historical) A Greek silver coin used briefly from 1828 to 1832, divided into 100 lepta.
  Quotations
  The national currency, the phoenix, which had been established by Kapodistrias, was renamed after an ancient Greek coin, the drachma.
  2019, Roderick Beaton, Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation, Penguin, published 2020, page 116
5. (obsolete) A marvelous person or thing.
  Quotations
  He may not be a phœnix of cleverness in your sense; his profession is different; but it would be all the better for you to talk a little on his subjects.
  1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LVIII, in Middlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, book VI, page 282
verb
third-person singular simple present phoenixes, present participle phoenixing, simple past and past participle phoenixed
1. (Australia) To transfer assets from one company to another to dodge liability
  Quotations
  Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association CEO John Winter said phoenixing has been "endemic" for decades.
  2019 December 17, Noel Gladstone, Carrie Fellner, “Small business flattened by 'dodgy' builders in phoenixing epidemic”, in The Sydney Morning Herald‎
  The ATO defines iIllegal[sic – meaning illegal] phoenixing as when a new company is created to continue the business of a company that has been deliberately liquidated to avoid paying its debts, including taxes, creditors and employee entitlements.
  2020 September 24, Anne Davies, “Phoenixing: how unscrupulous dealers rise debt-free from the ashes of failed companies”, in The Sydney Morning Herald‎

Definition of "phoenix"

phoenix

noun

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verb

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